Sarah wrote her first novel before her marriage, "The History of Cornelia" (1750), a portrait of an ideal and pious young woman. To help with the household expenses and philanthropy, Sarah decided to write and pursue "professional literary translation." In 1754, she translated "Le Laideur aimable" as "An Agreeable Ugliness", an exaggeratedly moralistic French novel. Later that same year, she wrote "A Journey through every Stage of Life", which is an "Arabian Nights"-styled series of tales told by a young servant girl to her mistress, a princess exiled by her brother.