Reeve

Reeve, CLARA (1729-1807), English novelist, daughter of William Reeve, a Suffolk clergyman, was born at Ipswich in 1729. She was an industrious writer, and produced many works in prose and verse, including a history of the Progress of Romance (1785); but her only eminent success was the novel of The Old English Baron (1777), originally published under the title of The Champion of Virtue. In the history of the English novel she stands midway between Walpole and Mrs. Radcliffe. She died at Ipswich on the 3rd of December 1807.