Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Charlotte Smith
-
Standard Name: Smith, Charlotte
Birth Name: Charlotte Turner
Married Name: Charlotte Smith
CS
, poet and novelist of the later eighteenth century, continued her output especially of children's books, into the very early nineteenth century. She wrote her poems for pleasure, her remarkable, now edited letters for relief from the struggles of a difficult life, but her novels (she said) only by necessity.
qtd. in
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
996
Many of the latter have foreign settings, not for mere exoticism but to further a political critique which takes a global view. All her writing was done at high speed: she found it hard or impossible to make her income cover the unremitting expenses of her large dependent family. A critic has recently pronounced that the best of [her] writings . . . should be recognised as among the greatest works of the period.
Barrell, John. “To Stir up the People”. London Review of Books, Vol.
It opens with the title-poem of about 650 lines, The Old Manor House, which tells the tragic story of two young lovers, Guy and Margaret, who are kept apart because of the impossible circumstances...
Textual Features
Helena Wells
HW
says she has more respect for the upper classes than some of our modern reformists.
Wells, Helena. Letters on Subjects of Importance to the Happiness of Young Females. L. Peacock; W. Creech, 1799.
7
She recommends reading poetry and history, not novels: Novel reading tends to enervate the mind. We rise from...
Textual Production
Mary Hays
It was MH
who finished Charlotte Smith
's History of England, published in 1806: Smith, in deteriorating health, had written to her about this project in July 1800. Hays added the third volume, taking...
Textual Production
Eglinton Wallace
It appeared in two different editions put out this year through the different publishers T. Hookham
, and Debrett
. The Debrett edition lists the price, one shilling and sixpence, on the title-page.
“Eighteenth Century Collections Online”. Gale Databases.
Goethe's novel...
Textual Production
Helen Waddell
An earlier translator was Charlotte Smith
, whose version appeared in probably late 1785. George Saintsbury
supplied an introduction for Waddell's translation (which was reprinted in 1934). This work led to another, a play about...
Textual Production
Anne Damer
An anonymous novel was published in three volumes by Johnson
, entitled Letters of Miss Riversdale, which Charlotte Smith
ascribed to AD
.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press, 2000, 2 vols.
2: 163
Textual Production
Eliza Parsons
She gave her name as Mrs. Parsons on the title-page and signed the dedication with both her names.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press, 2000, 2 vols.
1: 512
A title-page epigraph reads: Brutus said Virtue was but a name—tis more. ....
Textual Production
Eliza Fenwick
Charlotte Smith
knew of this work-in-progress on 26 July 1800, when she told Mary Hays
how she wished she could help EF
with money or moral support. On 31 October 1801 Hays noted that Thomas Underwood
Textual Production
Mary Bryan
The preface to the work writhes between expression and suppression. MB
alternately fears being blamed for vanity or presumption
Bryan, Mary, and Jonathan Wordsworth. Sonnets and Metrical Tales 1815. Woodstock Books, 1996.
viii
and hints at her ambition, citing Charlotte Smith
. She admires Smith for having succeeded...
Textual Production
Mary Julia Young
The poem is dedicated by their sincere admirer, the author, to those, whose dramatic excellence suggested it.
Young, Mary Julia. Genius and Fancy; or, Dramatic Sketches. H. D. Symonds and J. Gray.
1792, prelims
MJY
did not claim it with her name until its re-issue with other poems in 1795...
Textual Production
Sophia King
The Minerva Press
published SK
's (anonymous) second novel, Cordelia; or, A Romance of Real Life.
Her subtitle had been used as title by Charlotte Smith
for a translation from French published twelve years before.
University of Alberta Libraries On-line Catalogue. http://www.library.ualberta.ca/.
Butler, Lady Eleanor et al. “Foreword and Editorial Materials”. The Hamwood Papers of the Ladies of Llangollen and Caroline Hamilton, edited by Eva Mary Bell, Macmillan, 1930, p. vii - viii; various pages.
The periodical was launched in May. MW
's first major review came in July, of Charlotte Smith
's Emmeline.
Kelly, Gary. Revolutionary Feminism: The Mind and Career of Mary Wollstonecraft. Macmillan, 1992.
81
She later assumed the duties of editor; the Analytical Review became one of her...
Textual Production
Clara Reeve
Her publisher, Dilly
, paid her £10 for the copyright.
Trainer, James, and Clara Reeve. “Introduction”. The Old English Baron, Oxford University Press, 1977.
xii
In CR
's exaggeratedly humble preface she acknowledges her work to be the literary offspring of the Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
—whom...
Textual Production
Mary Russell Mitford
MRM
took a keen interest in the reputations of women writers. She planned in 1821 to write an essay on Miss Austen
's novels, which are by no means valued as they deserve
Mitford, Mary Russell. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself in Letters To Her Friends. Editor L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, Harper and Brothers, 1870, 2 vols.
