FRANCES SHERIDAN

Frances Sheridan (1724-1766) was an Anglo-Irish playwright who was born in Dublin and moved to London in 1758. She started writing her first novel in 1747, and was influenced by Samuel Richardson’s Pamela. She wrote three plays and four novels, the most famous being the diary novel Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph (1761).

The fragments:

In 1767 Frances Sheridan published the short novel The history of Nourjehad, which was inspired by the vogue of Oriental tales, and more specifically by the Thousand and one nights. It is about an Eastern young courtier, Nourjehad, in the palace of the Persian Sultan Schemzeddin. In his youthful rashfulness, Nourjehad wishes that he will be incomparably rich and will live forever. A genie appears who grants him his wish, on condition that at times he will sleep for indefinite periods. Nourjehad hoards his treasures in an underground crypt but gradually loses his faith, his beloved ones and his freedom. In his hubris, he considers himself to be above the law and he converts his garden in a replica of paradise. However, in his isolation he discovers that the only remedy against his sense of loneliness is to perform charity and help the poor. In the end it turns out that his horrid experience was only a dream, evoked by a soporific drug given to him by Schemzeddin. The story fits in the 18th century tradition of the moral/ philosophical Oriental tale, represented also by tales by Johnson and Hawkesworth, and in Germany by Wieland, Klinger, and Tieck. The story makes use of typical Thousand and one nights motifs, such as the dream, the genie, incomparable riches, man and his destiny, etc. The motif of the curing dream can also be found in Klinger’s Giafar.