Charlotte SmithCharlotte Smith was one of the most prolific writers of her day (she lived from 1749 to 1807), but her radical republican sympathies during and after the French Revolution eroded her popularity with wary English-speaking critics and readers. Today, however, she is recognized as an important figure in the development of women's writing. She enhanced the novel of sensibility with the romantic description of nature and used the sublime and the picturesque as part of the sentimental-gothic style that she developed and Ann Radcliffe later imitated. In this comprehensive, reliable survey of all of Smith's work - poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children's books - Carrol L. Fry looks at Smith as a proto-feminist, a woman quite unusual for her time, and seeks to bring to today's readers an awareness of Smith as one of the most important writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Fry argues that Smith's works reflect the sweeping political and cultural changes of her day. Such novels as The Old Manor House (1793) and Marchmont (1796), he contends, reflect the idealism of British liberalism in the early days of the French Revolution, contemporary republican views on issues that would be part of the British reform movement for the next hundred years, and criticism of the way British society allowed those with wealth and power to abuse the law. Fry finds implicit in Smith's later novels the theme of the powerlessness of women in the patriarchal society of the late eighteenth century. Using unpublished manuscript material - primarily Smith's copious letters - Fry gives readers a glimpse of this turbulent era and the literature it generated. Smith's work reflects a time whendemocratic revolutions swept aside ancient privilege and created a new social order, when women writers began the feminist critique, and when romanticism was aborning. Fry's book will bring a new respect for Smith's writing and a fresh insight into the importance of this powerful woman in the canon of British romanticism. |
From inside the book
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Page 30
Carrol Lee Fry. of the poem and suggest a parallel or contrast to the persona's life or to the melancholy common lot , and some poems suggest that nature has the power to heal the wounded soul . The striking image of the " seven- fold ...
Carrol Lee Fry. of the poem and suggest a parallel or contrast to the persona's life or to the melancholy common lot , and some poems suggest that nature has the power to heal the wounded soul . The striking image of the " seven- fold ...
Page 76
... suggests his political position . Bethel speaks with the authority of experience ( Smith tells his history in a long letter at the outset ) and reason . In a letter dated July 6 , 1791 , Bethel begins by suggesting that Desmond is " far ...
... suggests his political position . Bethel speaks with the authority of experience ( Smith tells his history in a long letter at the outset ) and reason . In a letter dated July 6 , 1791 , Bethel begins by suggesting that Desmond is " far ...
Page 143
... suggests she may have written it . The Epilogue refers to the author as a woman , and the plot hinges on a disastrous marriage not unlike Smith's It also has a good deal of satire of the law , a staple in Smith's works , and a sneering ...
... suggests she may have written it . The Epilogue refers to the author as a woman , and the plot hinges on a disastrous marriage not unlike Smith's It also has a good deal of satire of the law , a staple in Smith's works , and a sneering ...
Common terms and phrases
18th century Althea Ann Radcliffe appeared aristocrat Beachy Head beautiful Beinecke Benjamin Smith Bethel Britain British republicans castle Celestina characters Charlotte Smith conventional criticism Curran d'Alonville daughter death Delamere Desmond Dorset editions of Elegiac Elegiac Sonnets Elizabeth Inchbald Emmeline England English established Ethelinde father feelings France French Revolution Geraldine Glenmorris gothic gothic fiction Grasmere Helen Maria Williams hero heroine Hilbish Huntington husband instance Jacobin language later literary London Marchmont Maria marriage marry Mary Mary Wollstonecraft Montalbert nature Newenden novelists Old Manor House Orlando passage passion poems poet political Preface published readers reason refers reflects Review romantic romanticism Rosalie Rousseau scene sensibility slave slavery Smith describes Smith's letters Smith's novels social Story of Henrietta sublime taste tells theme tion tyranny University Press volume Wanderings of Warwick Werther William Cowper William Hayley Willoughby Wollstonecraft women Wordsworth writes written wrongs of woman Young Philosopher