A review by clawsberdej
Belinda by Maria Edgeworth

3.0

I really enjoyed this novel and found the characters with the plot interesting. Belinda is a rational and strong woman, definitely ahead of her time. However after a while, Belinda's rationality got annoying to me - she seemed to only act on rationality and never indulge or admit to passions and feelings, which made her seem cold and unfeeling, though this isn't the case. By the end, I was disappointed that she didn't seem to grow or change at all, she was the same bland (not sure bland is quite the right word) character who still couldn't express her feelings. The ending really disappointed me- it seemed rushed and I didn't like that Lady Delacour seemed to narrate much of it - and this is the reason for the 3 stars rather than 4. Every female in this novel seemed to be extreme or over dramatic in their characterization: Belinda was too rational and didn't have much balance between passion and rationality, Lady Delacour was only passionate and "out there," with little sense, Freke was an antagonistic woman, Luttridge was a liar and deceiver the whole way through, Virginia was so innocent and pure to the point of being a little crazy, etc.. The characters didn't seem to have much balance, they were all portraying stereotypes in the extreme.