Harriet Lee

The Mysterious Marriage; Or, the Heirship of Roselva (Dodo Press) Harriet Lee

Harriet Lee (1757-1851) was a novelist and playwright. Born the daughter of actor John Lee, Harriet Lee grew up in an artistic family. In 1786 she published The Errors of Innocence, an epistolary novel. In 1797 she completed another novel, Clara Lennox, and that same year she published the first volume of a collection of twelve stories, Canterbury Tales (completed in 1805). Her sister, Sophia Lee (1750-1824), also a successful author and dramatist, contributed two episodes to the first volume of this lengthy project. One episode, Kruitzner, was dramatized by Lord Byron in 1821 under the title of Werner; or, The Inheritance. Harriet Lee then wrote it as a play, re-titled The Three Strangers; it debuted at London's Covent Garden in 1825.