The Miser's Daughter is a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth serially published in 1842. It is a historical romance that describes a young man pursuing the daughter of a miserly rich man during the 18th century.Ainsworth wrote The Miser's Daughter in 1842 while he was writing Windsor Castle. During this time, he was constantly working and stopped only when his mother, Ann Ainsworth, died on 15 March 1842. It was published in a serialised form in the Ainsworth's Magazine with some overlap with Windsor Castle. George Cruikshank served as illustrator. The work was later published in novel format, but it did not include all of the illustrations used in the magazine. A play version was put on by Edward Stirling at Adelphia in October 1842. Another version was produced by T. P. Taylor in November 1842 at the City of London Theatre.In April 1872, a version of The Miser's Daughter, called Hilda, was produced for the Adelphi Theatre by Andrew Halliday. This prompted Cruikshank, on 6 April 1872, to write a letter to The Times about the theatrical production.In the letter, Cruikshank was upset that his name was left out of credits for the play and claimed that the idea for the novel came from himself and not from Ainsworth. This provoked a controversy between the two.

ウィリアム・ハリソン・エインズワースが描いた本作は、十八世紀ロンドンの喧騒を背景に、金への執着と純真な愛が激突する歴史ロマンの傑作です。強欲な守銭奴の父と娘の運命は、単なる勧善懲悪を超え、人間の底知れぬ欲深さと高潔な精神の相克を鮮烈に描き出します。ゴシック的な趣向が、読者を当時の退廃的かつ魅力的な社交界の闇へと深く誘います。 画家ジョージ・クルックシャンクの挿絵と共鳴し合う構成は、文字だけでは到達できない圧倒的な立体感を物語に与えています。欲望に狂う人間の業を凝視しつつ、それでも失われない愛の気高さを謳い上げる。その力強い筆致は、時代を超えて読む者の魂を熱く焦がし、人間の真の価値とは何かを厳かに問いかけてくるのです。