by Godwin. She also did considerable editorial and critical work. A four-volume autobiography was destroyed before her death on the advice of her confessor, but she left some of her diaries. The latter are held at the Folger Shakespeare Library and an edition was published in 2007. Reception and reputation Many of the plays she translated were farces, and they were popular with audiences. Over a period of twenty years, she translated one or two pieces a year, one notable example being Lovers' Vows, a translation of a play by August von Kotzebues. Lovers' Vows ran for forty-two nights when first performed in 1798: a highly successful run. Lovers' Vows (1798) was subsequently featured as a focus of moral controversy by Jane Austen in her novel Mansfield Park (1814). Inchbald's novels, in particular A Simple Story, were well reviewed. However, her theatrical reviews were sometimes received poorly by other critics. While in the 1920s she was described by one critic as "a charming woman" who was sadly ignorant of Shakespeare, in recent decades Inchbald has aroused considerable critical interest, particularly among scholars of women's writing. Her two novels have been frequently reprinted and American critic Terry Castle called her A Simple Story "the most elegant English fiction of the eighteenth century". Works Etexts Elizabeth Inchbald at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA) Lovers' Vows. Eds Thomas C. Crochunis and Michael Eberle-Sinatra, with an introduction by Jonathan Wordsworth [15 January 2000]. Lovers' Vows at Project Gutenberg The Massacre. Eds. Thomas C. Crochunis and Michael Eberle-Sinatra, with an Introduction by Danny O'Quinn. British Women Playwrights Around 1800 . 15 April 1999. Nature and Art at Project Gutenberg Such Things Are. Eds. Gioia Angeletti and Thomas C. Crochunis, with an introduction by Gioia Angeletti. British Women Playwrights Around 1800 . 15 May 2003. The Wedding Day. Eds. Thomas C. Crochunis and Susan Hyon. British Women Playwrights Around 1800 . 15 June 2003. Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are. Gioia Angeletti and Thomas C. Crochunis. British Women Playwrights Around 1800 . 15 May 2003. Adaptations 'The Massacre' (part of the 'Restoring The Repertoire' series from the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, UK) 'Wives as they Were, and Maids as they Are' (part of the 'Restoring The Repertoire' series from the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, UK) Notes References Katovich, Megan. "Elizabeth Inchbald: Actress and Playwright" Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England's Principal Woman