Silly Novels by Lady Novelists

""She is the ideal woman in feelings, faculties, and flounces.""

"Silly Novels By Lady Novelists" is an essay written by George Eliot in 1856, in which she skewers so many Common Mary Sue Traits it's amazing -- everything from her beautiful singing voice to her hordes of admirers to her astounding intellect.

Tropes diagnosed in this essay (not all Mary Sue Tropes, actually):

 * Altum Videtur
 * Aristocrats Are Evil
 * Author Tract
 * The Beautiful Elite
 * Beauty Is Never Tarnished
 * Blue Blood
 * Curse
 * Dances and Balls
 * Deathbed Confession
 * Death of the Hypotenuse
 * Designated Hero
 * Did Not Do the Research
 * Dude in Distress
 * Duel to the Death
 * Easy Evangelism
 * Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry
 * Genius Book Club
 * Gilded Cage
 * Historical Fiction
 * Improbable Age
 * Informed Ability: Particularly her intellect.
 * Little Professor Dialog
 * Long-Lost Relative
 * Love Dodecahedron
 * Made a Slave
 * Mary Sue
 * Canon Sue: All the works are technically original fiction.
 * Melodrama
 * Moral Myopia
 * Nice Guy: The designated hero of the Evangelical white neck-cloth species.
 * Omniglot
 * Owl Be Damned
 * Parental Marriage Veto
 * Period Piece
 * Pimped-Out Dress
 * Purple Prose
 * Rags to Royalty
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
 * Shallow Love Interest
 * Virgin Power
 * Wrong Guy First