As Donelle Ruwe writes in her study of O'Keeffe's life and works: "When Adelaide was six, her father lost his eyesight and discovered that his wife was having an affair with a Scottish actor named George Graham.
O'Keeffe's first published work is the historical novel Llewellin: A Tale,[3] and throughout her writing career, she would return to the historical fiction form, often seeking out narratives in which her heroes suffered the trauma of a disrupted childhood, often caused by the separation of the hero's parents, as is the case with her final novel The Broken Sword, or, A Soldier’s Honour: A Tale of the Allied Armies of 1757.
Zenobia, as depicted by O'Keeffe, is taught multiple religions (and also teaches others, including her husband) as she converts from paganism, to Judaism, and finally to Christianity.
It is modeled directly after Adèle et Théodore, ou Lettres sur l'éducation (1782) by Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Genlis (translated as Adelaide and Theodore).
O'Keeffe's most famous prose work is a retelling of the first five books of the Bible, Patriarchal Times; or, The Land of Canaan: a Figurate History (1811).
[9] O'Keeffe's poetry has been republished in facsimile form in the database, Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period, with an introduction by Donelle Ruwe and under the guidance of series editor Stephen Behrendt (Alexander Street Press, 2008).