Book contents
- Lost Plots
- Lost Plots
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 “Freckles,” “Blemishes,” and Other “Mistakes” of Form
- Chapter 2 Unfixed Authorship and Readymade Afterlives of The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality
- Chapter 3 Speech Patterns
- Chapter 4 Puny and Discardable
- Chapter 5 Mother Tongue
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 3 - Speech Patterns
The Pluralized Voices of Sarah Fielding and Sarah Scott
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 December 2025
Book contents
- Lost Plots
- Lost Plots
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 “Freckles,” “Blemishes,” and Other “Mistakes” of Form
- Chapter 2 Unfixed Authorship and Readymade Afterlives of The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality
- Chapter 3 Speech Patterns
- Chapter 4 Puny and Discardable
- Chapter 5 Mother Tongue
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter focuses on the philosophical novels of Sarah Fielding and Sarah Scott, younger sisters to fame and zealous proponents of literary and social reform, though perhaps not in that order. Tracking their novels’ trajectory away from the organizing singular narrator toward collective perspectives allows me to diagram a genealogical chain of formal experimentation that runs through Sarah Fielding’s The Adventures of David Simple (1744) and The Governess (1749) through Sarah Scott’s Description of Millenium Hall (1762). This chapter offers a new approach that discerns the patterned formal framework that undergirds how these novels imagine reparative communal responses to gender-based harms and women-centered alternatives to possessive individualism.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lost PlotsInterpolated Tales and the Eighteenth-Century Novel, pp. 90 - 121Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AAA
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
The PDF of this book
complies with version 2.2 of the
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
(WCAG), offering more comprehensive accessibility measures for a broad range
of users and attains the highest
(AAA)
level of WCAG compliance, optimising the user experience by meeting the most extensive
accessibility guidelines.
Content Navigation
Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Reading Order & Textual Equivalents
Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Short alternative textual descriptions
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
Visualised data also available as non-graphical data
You can access graphs or charts in a text or tabular format, so you are not excluded if you cannot process visual displays.
You can access graphs or charts in a text or tabular format, so you are not excluded if you cannot process visual displays.
Visual Accessibility
Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.
Use of high contrast between text and background colour
You benefit from high‐contrast text, which improves legibility if you have low vision or if you are reading in less‐than‐ideal lighting conditions.
You benefit from high‐contrast text, which improves legibility if you have low vision or if you are reading in less‐than‐ideal lighting conditions.