author
Eaton Stannard Barrett
1786–1820
An Irish satirist with a sharp sense of humor, he is best remembered for the comic novel The Heroine and for lively political writing from the early 19th century.
1 Audiobook
The Heroine
by Eaton Stannard Barrett
About the author
Born in Cork in 1786, he was educated in England and at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 1805. He later entered the Middle Temple in London, but instead of building a legal career, he became known for poetry, satire, and comic fiction.
His best-known work is The Heroine; or, Adventures of a Fair Romance Reader (1813), a playful send-up of sentimental and Gothic reading fashions. He also wrote political satires and verse, earning a reputation as a witty and energetic writer with a strong feel for parody.
Barrett died on March 20, 1820, in his early thirties. Although he is not as widely read now as some of his contemporaries, The Heroine has kept his name alive as an entertaining and inventive voice in Irish and English literary history.