In the Preface of her 1814 novel, O’Donnel, Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan) reveals a continuation of her then ten-year application of revolutionary purpose for her writing:
The character of my sex, no less than my own feelings, urged me, in touching those parts of Irish history which were connected with my tale, to turn them to the purposes of conciliation, and to incorporate the leaven of favorable opinion with that heavy mass of bitter prejudice, which writers, both grave and trifling, have delighted to raise against my country.
Clearly, Owenson is conscious of her aristocratic audience as she utilizes elegant rhetoric in direct correlation with her Anglo-Irish background to make her political statement.
