Nature and Art

Nature and Art is the second novel written by English actress, playwright, and novelist Elizabeth Inchbald. First published in 1796, Inchbald’s two-volume novel considers the influence of education, social conventions, gender conditioning, and privilege on human behavior.

Nature and Art tells the story of two brothers, William and Henry Norwynne, as well as their sons, also named William and Henry.

Considered a Jacobin novel, Nature and Art traces the connections between the character's personal experiences and larger structures of institutional oppression. Notably, Nature and Art is an early example of a Romantic era novel with a title of paired opposites, like to the later novel Sense and Sensibility (1811) by Jane Austen.