Emma Parker

Emma Parker (pseud. "Emma De Lisle"; fl 1809–1817) was an Anglo-Welsh novelist of whom very little is known, although her work was generally well-reviewed during her lifetime. Her epistolary novel Self-Deception explores the cultural and religious differences between the English and the French. Writing Emma Parker seems to have been an Anglican, and an impoverished member of the gentry class who lived alone in Denbighshire, at Fairfield House. Her home was named after a family in her first novel, A Soldier's Offspring, or, The Sisters (1809), which she submitted to Minerva Press, specialists in sentimental and Gothic fiction, in the hope of earning some money. The novel was dedicated to her unnamed mother and features a pair of sisters, one sensible and one flighty. Parker went on to write six more novels, all well-received by reviewers: Elfrida; or, the Heiress of Belgrove (1810); Fitz-Edward, or, The Cambrians (1811); Virginia; or the Peace of Amiens (1811); Aretas (1813); The Guerrilla Chief (1815); and the epistolary Self-Deception (1816). She also published a "well-informed" volume of essays: Important Trifles: Chiefly Appropriate to Females on their Entrance into Society (1817). The date of her death is not known. According to the Canadian scholar Isobel Grundy, "Parker's work, always intelligent, became more interesting as her career progressed. Her conduct book demonstrates learning and advocates religious belief and strong-mindedness. Her novels often touch on political and military matters, on the hardships of soldiers and the difficulties of readjusting to civilian life. Self-Deception (a novel set after the marriage of the hero and heroine) explores the cultural and religious differences between English and French life."