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Abstract: The paper reconstructs the life and activity of the author of a famous novel for boys as well as of a textbook of arithmetic and of essays on educational issues, who was also the sister of a famous economist. The bulk of the paper is dedicated to Alfred Dudley, a novel for boys about wealth, status, speculation, poverty, manual work, emigration and the role of virtue in making a decent society possible. Also the author's educational views are discussed, highlighting her opposition to Benthamite programs and her proposal for an inter-denominational religious education, and arguing that her contributions to plans for a general education system were meant to respond to what had been Smith's, Malthus's, and perhaps also her brother's question, namely, how may wealth and virtue go together?
1 Introduction: The Life of a Nineteenth-Century Literary Lady
Sarah Ricardo Porter, or, allowing for increasing doses of male chauvinism, Sarah Porter née Ricardo, Sarah Porter or Mrs G.R. Porter, was the youngest daughter of Abraham Ricardo. The latter had married Abigail Delvalle in 1769 and they had a huge family, even by eighteenth-century standards, of fifteen children (Sraffa 1955: 24). Sarah was born on 22 December 1790, twenty years after her famous brother, David Ricardo (ibid: 60). Her father was a man of considerable wealth and on his death left a fortune of £45,000. It is of interest that a letter written in Sarah's handwriting and signed jointly with Esther, her sister, refusing a present in money from David has been preserved. It may date from some time after Abraham Ricardo's death in 1812 and before Sarah's marriage in 1814. The reason why David felt he had to offer some financial help was that Abraham had established that the younger children's share should be left in trust until they came of age or married, and as a consequence Sarah and Esther had an annual allowance of only £90 each to rely upon. The reasons for refusal, besides the opinion that they did not really need any more money, was an awareness of the undesirable side-effects of the gift relationship, 'for while one party is constantly receiving obligations from the other, there certainly cannot subsist that perfect equality so necessary to the unrestrained...