Charlotte Smith

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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.
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.
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.
36
, No. 2, pp. 17-19.
19
Stipple engraving by Pierre Condé of Charlotte Smith, from portrait by George Romney, 1792, in the National Portrait Gallery. The engraving appeared as frontispiece to volume 2 of "Elegiac Sonnets", 8th ed., 1797. This is a head-and-shoulders view. She is looking down, wearing a simple, light, gauzy dress, and a high bonnet with a large bow in front over her curling hair. The portrait is surrounded by a decorative swirl design, and underneath her name is written in block letters.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Wealth and Poverty Mary Ann Radcliffe
At first MAR 's money was tied up in a trust, so that her husband had no access to it, but this situation did not last. Her family life began in poverty and became worse...
Wealth and Poverty Elizabeth Thomas
This was the low point (so far) in Thomas's life. Gwinnett had changed his will less than three weeks before his death, and left her 600 pounds, but his family ensured that it did not...
Travel Ann Radcliffe
Within a month or so they were off again, to the English Lake District, visiting their relations in the north on the way (AR 's parents were now settled in Chesterfield). This...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Hester Mulso Chapone
HMC was still reading and commenting on others' works into her old age. She read and remarked on Hester Piozzi , Charlotte Smith , Edward Gibbon , Erasmus Darwin 's The Loves of the Plants...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Anne Katharine Elwood
Some of the British women writers discussed in the text remain well-known, but others have slipped into obscurity. Memoirs includes: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu , Griselda Murray , Frances Seymour, Lady Hertford , Hester Lynch Piozzi
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Julia Kavanagh
In this second work of women's literary history, JK once again limits herself to the novel. Her canon comprises ten authors, from Aphra Behn to Sydney Morgan by way of Sarah Fielding , Frances Burney
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Jane West
JW includes some juvenile work in this collection (a poem on Easter and another, written at her mother's request, beginning Thou sweet composer of earth-nurtur'd care, Sweet Poesy!
Feminist Companion Archive.
), and a piece reprinted from a...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Anne Grant
This contains autobiographical fragments and insightful comments on other women writers. Objects of AG 's comment include Susan Ferrier , Charlotte Smith (whose poems AG felt to be easy, flowing, and correct, but low on...
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.
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 Wollstonecraft
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.
81
She later assumed the duties of editor; the Analytical Review became one of her...
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.
1: 357
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 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 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.
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.
1: 512
A title-page epigraph reads: Brutus said Virtue was but a name—tis more. ....

Timeline

1731: Antoine-François Prévost published the first...

Writing climate item

1731

Antoine-François Prévost published the first form of his novelManon Lescaut.

13 September 1759: A British party under James Wolfe climbed...

National or international item

13 September 1759

A British party under James Wolfe climbed the Heights of Abraham at Quebec and beat the French in battle there.

1775: The first, posthumous, printing of Thomas...

Writing climate item

1775

The first, posthumous, printing of Thomas Gray 's sonnet on the death of Richard West caused a literary sensation; it laid the foundation for Charlotte Smith 's Elegiac Sonnets, 1784, and the revival of the sonnet form.

1780: James Harrison (hitherto chiefly known as...

Writing climate item

1780

James Harrison (hitherto chiefly known as a music publisher) began to issue the handsomely-produced Novelists' Magazine, a weekly serial reprinting of canonical novels.

April 1789: The Gentleman's Magazine published Anna Seward's...

Women writers item

April 1789

The Gentleman's Magazine published Anna Seward 's selection of living celebrated Female Poets.

By June 1789: William Lisle Bowles published Fourteen Sonnets,...

Writing climate item

By June 1789

William Lisle Bowles published Fourteen Sonnets, Elegiac and Descriptive, Written during a Tour.

2 September 1793: Henrietta O'Neill, Irish writer and patron,...

Women writers item

2 September 1793

Henrietta O'Neill , Irish writer and patron, died. She had opened a private theatre at her seat, Shane's Castle in County Antrim, and also supported the theatre in Belfast.

By June 1796: Samuel Taylor Coleridge compiled a booklet...

Writing climate item

By June 1796

Samuel Taylor Coleridge compiled a booklet titled Sonnets from Various Authors: four each by himself, Southey , Charles Lamb , and Charles Lloyd , two by Charlotte Smith , and one each by seven more writers including Anna Seward .

By 22 July 1797: William Beckford published a second and more...

Women writers item

By 22 July 1797

William Beckford published a second and more marked burlesque attack on women's writing: Azemia: A Descriptive and Sentimental Novel. Interspersed with Pieces of Poetry.

December 1802: The Critical Review extolled the quality...

Women writers item

December 1802

The Critical Review extolled the quality of contemporary women's poetry: Miss Seward , Mrs Barbauld , Charlotte Smith , will take their place among the English poets for centuries to come.

1804: The publisher George, George, and John Robinson,...

Writing climate item

1804

The publisher George, George, and John Robinson , whose list of women writers had been distinguished, went bankrupt.

1825: Alexander Dyce, then a twenty-seven-year-old...

Women writers item

1825

Alexander Dyce , then a twenty-seven-year-old reluctant clergyman, published his Specimens of British Poetesses, a project in rediscovering women's literary history.

Texts

Smith, Charlotte. A Narrative of the Loss of the Catharine, Venus, and Piedmont Transports. Sampson Low, 1796.
Smith, Charlotte. Beachy Head. Joseph Johnson, 1807.
Smith, Charlotte. Celestina. T. Cadell, 1791.
Smith, Charlotte. Conversations, Introducing Poetry. Joseph Johnson, 1804.
Smith, Charlotte. Conversations, Introducing Poetry. J. Sharpe, 1815.
Smith, Charlotte. Desmond. G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1792.
Smith, Charlotte. Elegiac Sonnets. J. Dodsley, 1784.
Smith, Charlotte. Elegiac Sonnets. T. Cadell, 1789.
Smith, Charlotte. Elegiac Sonnets. T. Cadell; W. Davies, 1797.
Smith, Charlotte. Elegiac Sonnets 1789. Editor Wordsworth, Jonathan, Woodstock Books, 1992.
Smith, Charlotte. Emmeline. T. Cadell, 1788.
Smith, Charlotte. Ethelinde. T. Cadell, 1789.
Smith, Charlotte. “Introduction”. The Old Manor House, edited by Anne Henry Ehrenpreis, Oxford University Press, 1969, p. v - xxx.
Smith, Charlotte. “Introduction”. Emmeline, the Orphan of the Castle, edited by Anne Henry Ehrenpreis, Oxford University Press, 1971.
Smith, Charlotte. “Introduction”. Elegiac Sonnets 1789, edited by Jonathan Wordsworth, Woodstock Books, 1992.
Smith, Charlotte. “Introduction”. The Poems of Charlotte Smith, edited by Stuart Curran, Oxford University Press, 1993, p. xix - xxix.
Smith, Charlotte. “Introduction”. The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith, edited by Judith Phillips Stanton, Indiana University Press, 2003, p. i - xlv.
Smith, Charlotte. “Introduction”. The Works of Charlotte Smith, edited by Michael Garner et al., Pickering and Chatto, 2005, p. xxix - xxxvii.
Smith, Charlotte. Letters of a Solitary Wanderer. Sampson Low, 1799.
Prévost d’Exiles, Antoine-François. Manon Lescaut. Translator Smith, Charlotte, T. Cadell, 1786.
Smith, Charlotte. Marchmont. Sampson Low, 1796.
Smith, Charlotte. Minor Morals. Sampson Low, 1798.
Smith, Charlotte. Montalbert. Sampson Low, 1795.
Smith, Charlotte, and William Godwin. “Prologue”. Antonio, 1stst ed, G. G. and J. Robinson, 1800.
Smith, Charlotte. Rural Walks. T. Cadell, Jr. and W. Davies, 1795.