Sarah Fielding

Fielding, Sarah (1710–68), English novelist. The Governess, or Little Female Academy (1749), the first extended work of fiction for young readers, included two heavily moral fairy stories. ‘The Story of the Cruel Giant Barbarico, the Good Giant Benefico, and the Pretty Little Dwarf Mignon’ is the more original of the two, and was sometimes printed in chapbook form. ‘The Princess Hebe’ is in the high‐flown romantic style of d'Aulnoy. At a time when such stories were regarded by the enlightened as a relic of the dark ages, Fielding felt bound to apologize for their inclusion, and Mary Martha Sherwood in her recast 1820 version of the book excluded both stories.

— Gillian Avery