Penelope Aubin’s "The Life of Madam de Beaumont: Domesticating the Heliodoran Plot" in 1721

This essay focuses on Penelope Aubin’s use of the Heliodoran model in her first novel, The Life of Madam de Beaumont, published in 1721. Instead of simply following Defoe’s example – as many commentators have previously argued – Aubin domesticated devices and stereotypes of The Ethiopian Story, adapting them to a new context. In Madam de Beaumont, Aubin tones down the exotic settings of romance, figuring Wales as a place of romantic adventures while at the same time inscribing it with ideological oppositions that informed contemporary debates over the meaning of true virtue. Taking a conservative stance, she highlights the dangers of urban capitalism, questions the nature of individual value, and places a premium on hierarchy and tradition. Building on Heliodoran conventions, moreover, Aubin validates her moral and ideological perspective, as well as her role as a novelist, by means of a providential plot, thus responding to contemporary attacks on fiction.