The only edition to use the 1802 text, this lively comedy challenges the conventions of courtship, examines questions of female independence, and exposes the limits of domesticity. The text used in this edition also confronts the difficult and fascinating issues of racism and mixed marriage, which Edgeworth toned down in later editions. This book is intended for second and third year undergraduate, and postgraduate students of women's studies, 18th and 19th century British fiction.