The History of British Women’s Writing, 1750–1830 The History of British Women’s Writing General Editors: Jennie Batchelor and Cora Kaplan Advisory Board: Isobel Armstrong, Rachel Bowlby, Carolyn Dinshaw, Margaret Ezell, Margaret Ferguson, Isobel Grundy, and Felicity Nussbaum

The History of British Women’s Writing is an innovative and ambitious monograph series that seeks both to synthesize the work of several generations of feminist scholars, and to advance new directions for the study of women’s writing. Volume editors and contributors are leading scholars whose work collectively refl ects the global excellence in this expanding fi eld of study. It is envisaged that this series will be a key resource for specialist and non-specialist scholars and students alike.

Titles include: Caroline Bicks and Jennifer Summit (editors) THE HISTORY OF BRITISH WOMEN’S WRITING, 1500–1610 Volume Two

Ros Ballaster (editor) THE HISTORY OF BRITISH WOMEN’S WRITING, 1690–1750 Volume Four

Jacqueline M. Labbe (editor) THE HISTORY OF BRITISH WOMEN’S WRITING, 1750–1830 Volume Five

Forthcoming titles: Elizabeth Herbert McAvoy and Diane Watt (editors) THE HISTORY OF BRITISH WOMEN’S WRITING, 700–1500 Volume One

Mihoko Suzuki (editor) THE HISTORY OF BRITISH WOMEN’S WRITING, 1610–1690 Volume Three

History of British Women’s Writing Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–20079–1 hardback (outside North America only)

You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of diffi culty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England. The History of British Women’s Writing, 1750–1830 Volume Five

Edited by Jacqueline M. Labbe Selection and editorial matter © Jacqueline M. Labbe 2010 Individual chapters © contributors 2010 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-55071-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-36198-4 ISBN 978-0-230-29701-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230297012 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 For Rod, Indie, and Nathan This page intentionally left blank Contents

List of Figures ix Series Preface x Preface xii Acknowledgements xiii Notes on the Contributors xiv Chronology xvii

Introduction: Defining ‘Women’s Writing’; or, Writing ‘The History’ 1 Jacqueline M. Labbe Part I 1750–1830: Overviews 1 Women and Print Culture, 1750–1830 29 Michelle Levy 2 Women’s Travel Writing, 1750–1830 47 Katherine Turner Part II 1750–1800: Revolutions in Female Writing 3 Bluestocking Women and the Negotiation of Oral, Manuscript, and Print Cultures 63 Betty A. Schellenberg 4 ‘[T]o strike a little out of a road already so much beaten’: Gender, Genre, and the Mid-Century Novel 84 Jennie Batchelor 5 Anglophone Welsh Women’s Poetry 1750–84: Jane Cave and Anne Penny 102 Sarah Prescott 6 The Poem that Ate America: Helen Maria Williams’s Ode on the Peace (1783) 125 Kate Davies 7 Picturing Benevolence against the Commercial Cry, 1750–98: Or, Sarah Fielding and the Secret Causes of Romanticism 150 Donna Landry

vii viii Contents

8 Women Writers and Abolition 172 Deirdre Coleman 9 Charlotte Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft, and the Romance of Real Life 194 Stuart Curran 10 Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson and the First Year of the War with France 207 Harriet Guest Part III 1800–1830: Worlds of Writing 11 The Porter Sisters, Women’s Writing, and Historical Fiction 233 Devoney Looser 12 Joanna Baillie’s Emblematic Theatre 254 Betsy Bolton 13 National Internationalism: Women’s Writing and European Literature, 1800–30 268 Diego Saglia 14 Jane Austen’s Critical Response to Women’s Writing: ‘a good spot for fault-finding’ 288 Olivia Murphy 15 Mary Tighe and the Coterie of Women Poets in Psyche 301 Harriet Kramer Linkin 16 Influence, Anxiety, and Erasure in Women’s Writing: Romantic becomes Victorian 321 Stephen C. Behrendt

Select Bibliography 341 Index 352 List of Figures

1.1 Novel production as a percentage of the total by known male and female authors, by decade, 1750–1830 32 1.2 Named authorship of novels by men and women as a percentage of the total by gender, 1770–1830 40 6.1 Mr Trade and family, or, the state of ye Nation (1779), Library of Congress 127 6.2 The Late Bombardment of Government Castle (1782), Library of Congress 128 6.3 War of Posts (1782), Library of Congress 128 6.4 The Savages Let Loose, or The Cruel Fate of the Loyalists (1783), Library of Congress 129 6.5 The Blessings of Peace (1783), Library of Congress 130 6.6 Poor old England endeavoring to reclaim his Wicked American Children (1777), Library of Congress 131 6.7 Frontispiece, Westminster Magazine, vol. 6 (1778), Library of Congress 131 6.8 Frontispiece, Samuel Jackson Pratt, Emma Corbett, or, the Miseries of Civil War (1789 edition) ©The British Library Board. Shelfmark 12614f8 134 6.9 Joshua Reynolds, Count Ugolino and His Children (1773), Knole, The Sackville Collection, The National Trust ©NTPL/Brian Tremain 140 6.10 The Allies (1780), published by the radical printer, John Almon, Library of Congress 142

ix Series Preface

One of the most significant developments in literary studies in the last quarter of a century has been the remarkable growth of scholarship on women’s writing. This was inspired by, and in turn provided inspira- tion for, a post-war women’s movement which saw women’s cultural expression as key to their emancipation. The retrieval, republication, and reappraisal of women’s writing, beginning in the mid-1960s, have radically affected the literary curriculum in schools and universities. A revised canon now includes many more women writers. Literature courses that focus on what women thought and wrote from antiquity onwards have become popular undergraduate and postgraduate options. These new initiatives have meant that gender – in language, authors, texts, audience and in the history of print culture more generally – is a central question for literary criticism and literary history. A mass of fascinating research and analysis extending over several decades now stands as testimony to a lively and diverse set of debates, in an area of work that is still expanding. Indeed so rapid has this expansion been, that it has become increas- ingly difficult for students and academics to have a comprehensive view of the wider field of women’s writing outside their own period or specialism. As the research on women has moved from the margins to the confident centre of literary studies it has become rich in essays and monographs dealing with smaller groups of authors, with particular genres and with defined periods of literary production, reflecting the divisions of intellectual labour and development of expertise that are typical of the discipline of literary studies. Collections of essays that provide overviews within particular periods and genres do exist, but no published series has taken on the mapping of the field, even within one language group or national culture. A History of British Women’s Writing is intended as just such a carto- graphic standard work. Its ambition is to provide, in ten volumes edited by leading experts in the field, and comprised of newly commissioned essays by specialist scholars, a clear and integrated picture of women’s contribution to the world of letters within Great Britain from medieval times to the present. In taking on such a wide ranging project we were

x Series Preface xi inspired by the founding, in 2003, of Chawton House Library, a UK regis- tered charity with a unique collection of books focusing on women’s writing in English from 1600 to 1830, set in the home and working estate of Jane Austen’s brother.

JENNIE BATCHELOR UNIVERSITY OF KENT

CORA KAPLAN QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON Preface

It is a daunting task to attempt to produce a history of British women’s writing for a period in which British women became one of the driving forces in the production of poetry, prose, non-fiction, drama: in fact, writing of all kinds. As soon as such a history is assembled, one is imme- diately conscious of what has been left out. Fortunately, as editor of this volume I have felt the full benefits of working with a team of scholars for whom the importance, centrality, and fullness of women’s writing in the period is paramount. Each contributor has embraced the oppor- tunity to explore, not only a specific area of women’s writing or specific authors, but also the idea of history itself, during a period in which notions of what constitutes a ‘history’ were the subject of active debate. For their intellectual engagement with their subjects, their breaking of new ground, their refertilizing of discussions and conversations, and their deep commitment to a project such as this, I am indebted to the contributors to this volume. I would also like to thank the general editors of this ambitious series, Jennie Batchelor and Cora Kaplan, for the opportunity to immerse myself in British women’s writing from 1750 to 1830, and in the proc- ess to learn so much. Thanks are also due to Paula Kennedy, Christabel Scaife, and Steven Hall at Palgrave Macmillan for their commitment to the project and for their help, especially in the final days of preparing the manuscript. A volume like this would not be possible without the decades of work undertaken by scholars of women’s writing. Their challenging of the easy assumptions about quality and quantity that characterized an earlier form of literary criticism transformed the landscape of writing and made this volume possible. The literature of the period 1750–1830 has been repeopled through their work. Finally, my own work is constantly enabled and energized by Indie and Nathan, whose developing understanding of writing and reading is itself a history, and by Rod Jones, whose support, amazingly, does not flag.

JL Coventry, 2009

xii Acknowledgements

Count Ugolino and His Children by Sir Joshua Reynolds is reproduced by kind permission of The National Trust: this painting was handed to the National Trust in 1996. The Count is shown with four children, with light coming in through a barred window (accepted in lieu of tax by H.M. Treasury and allocated to The National Trust in 1995). Knole, The Sackville Collection (The National Trust) ©NTPL/Brian Tremain. References to the Jane Porter letters are courtesy of The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

xiii Notes on the Contributors

Jennie Batchelor is Senior Lecturer in English and American Literature at the University of Kent. She has published and edited various essays on gender and material culture, and is the author of Dress, Distress and Desire (2005). Her current book project is entitled, Woman’s Work: Labour, Gender and Authorship, 1750–1830. Stephen C. Behrendt is George Holmes Distinguished University Professor of English at the University of Nebraska. In addition to his many books and articles on interdisciplinary aspects of Romantic-era literature and culture (including British Women Poets and the Romantic Writing Community, 2008), he is also a widely published poet whose latest book is History (2005). Betsy Bolton is a Professor of English Literature at Swarthmore College, and the author of Women, Nationalism, and the Romantic Stage: Theatre and Politics in Britain, 1780–1800 (2001). Other publications include essays in Studies in Romanticism, English Literary History, and The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation. She is currently working on two projects: one addressing sentimental drama and politics, the other focused on women poets and formal innovation. Deirdre Coleman is the Robert Wallace Chair of English at the Univer- sity of Melbourne. She is the author of Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery (2005), and editor of the Australia volume of Women Writing Home, 1700–1920: Female Correspondence across the British Empire, 6 vols (2006). Stuart Curran is Vartan Gregorian Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Most recently, he served as general editor for The Works of Charlotte Smith (2005–07, 14 volumes). Kate Davies is Senior Lecturer in the School of English at Newcastle University. She is the author of a book about Catharine Macaulay and Mercy Otis Warren and has written several essays about the transatlantic contexts of eighteenth-century women’s writing. She is now complet- ing a book about women in revolutionary Philadelphia, and beginning work on a new interdiscipinary project exploring eighteenth-century literature, textiles, and material culture.

xiv Notes on the Contributors xv

Harriet Guest is Professor in the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies and the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. Recent publications include Empire, Barbarism, and Civilisation: James Cook, William Hodges and the Return to the Pacific (2007), Small Change: Women, Learning, Patriotism, 1750–1810 (2000), and, with Kate Davies, an edition of Charlotte Smith’s Marchmont (1796) for the Works of Charlotte Smith (2005–07).

Jacqueline Labbe is Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. She is the author, most recently, of Charlotte Smith: Romanticism, Poetry and the Culture of Gender (2003), the editor of Smith’s The Old Manor House (2000) and Poems for the Works of Charlotte Smith (2005–07), and edited and contributed to Charlotte Smith in British Romanticism (2008).

Donna Landry is Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Kent, where she directs the Centre for Studies in the Long Eighteenth Century. Her books include The Muses of Resistance: Laboring- Class Women’s Poetry in Britain, 1739–1796 (1990; reprint 2005), The Invention of the Countryside: Hunting, Walking, and Ecology in English Literature, 1671–1831 (2001), and Noble Brutes: How Eastern Horses Transformed English Culture (2008).

Michelle Levy is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University. She is the author of Family Authorship and Romantic Print Culture (Palgrave Macmillan 2008), and is currently work- ing on a book on amateur literary culture of the Romantic period. She has written articles on many female authors, including Jane Austen, Anna Barbauld, Mary Shelley, and Dorothy Wordsworth, and is the co-editor of Lucy Aikin’s Epistles on Women and other Works, forthcoming.

Harriet Kramer Linkin is Professor of English Literature at New Mexico State University. She is the editor of the first scholarly edition of The Collected Poems and Journals of Mary Tighe (2005) as well as co-editor of two collections on Romantic women poets: Romanticism and Women Poets: Opening the Doors of Reception (1999) and Approaches to Teaching Women Poets of the British Romantic Period (1997).

Devoney Looser is Professor of English at the University of Missouri. She is the author of Women Writers and Old Age in Great Britain, 1750–1850 and British Women Writers and the Writing of History 1670–1820. She serves as co-editor of the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies. xvi Notes on the Contributors

Olivia Murphy is a DPhil candidate at Worcester College, Oxford University, having previously completed an MPhil at Sydney University on Austen’s juvenilia. She has published on Austen in Eighteenth Century Studies and Sydney Studies in English, and is currently in the final stages of a doctoral thesis on the subject of Jane Austen’s critical art of the novel. The research for the chapter in this volume was undertaken during her fellowship at Chawton House Library. Sarah Prescott is Senior Lecturer in English in the Department of English and Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University. She is the author of Women, Authorship and Literary Culture, 1680–1740 (Palgrave 2003) and has written a number of articles and chapters on seventeenth and eighteenth-century women writers. She has also co-edited (with David E. Shuttleton) a collection of essays on Women and Poetry, 1660–1750 (Palgrave, 2003). Diego Saglia is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Parma, Italy. He is the author of Poetic Castles in Spain: British Romanticism and Figurations of Iberia (2000), and co-editor of Il teatro della paura: scenari gotici del romanticismo europeo (with Giovanna Silvani, 2005), Re-Drawing Austen: Picturesque Travels in Austenland (with Beatrice Battaglia, 2005), and British Romanticism and Italian Literature: Translating, Reviewing, Rewriting (with Laura Bandiera, 2005). Betty A. Schellenberg is Professor of English at Simon Fraser University and has published The Professionalization of Women Writers in Eighteenth- Century Britain (2005), Reconsidering the Bluestockings (co-edited with Nicole Pohl, 2003), Part Two: Reflections on the Sequel (co-edited with Paul Budra, 1998), and The Conversational Circle: Rereading the English Novel, 1740–1775 (1996). Katherine Turner is Associate Professor of English at Mary Baldwin College. She is the author of British Travel Writers in Europe 1750–1800: Authorship, Gender and National Identity (2001), and co-editor (with Francis O’Gorman) of The Victorians and the Eighteenth Century: Reassessing the Tradition (2004). She has recently edited Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey (2010) and several volumes of Women’s Court and Society Memoirs (2010). Chronology

Year Events Works 1750 Population of Britain reaches Sarah Scott, The History of Cornelia 5.7 million 1751 Eliza Haywood, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless; Charlotte Lennox, The Life of Harriot Stuart 1752 Gregorian Calendar adopted Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote 1753 Passing of the Marriage Act; Jane Collier, An Essay on the Art founding of British Museum of Ingeniously Tormenting; Sarah Fielding, The Adventures of David Simple. Volume the Last; Eliza Haywood, The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy; Charlotte Lennox, Shakespear Illustrated (1753–54) 1754 Anglo-French War in America Sarah Fielding and Jane Collier, begins; Royal Society of Arts The Cry; Eliza Haywood, The founded Invisible Spy; Sarah Scott, Agreeable Ugliness and A Journey Through Every Stage of Life 1755 Lisbon earthquake Frances Brooke, The Old Maid (1755–56); Charlotte Charke, A Narrative of the Life of Mrs Charlotte Charke; Eliza Haywood, The Wife 1756 Outbreak of the Seven Years’ War; Frances Brooke, Virginia; Eliza Critical Review begins publication Haywood, The Husband 1757 Victory in Battle of Plassey Sarah Fielding, The Lives of consolidated British power in Cleopatra and Octavia; Charlotte Indian subcontinent via East India Lennox, Memoirs for the History of Company Madame de Maintenon 1758 Opening of the Magdalen House Elizabeth Carter, All the Works for the Reception of Penitent of Epictetus; Charlotte Lennox, Prostitutes Henrietta 1759 Opening of British Museum; Siege Sarah Fielding, The History of the of Quebec Countess of Dellwyn

(Continued)

xvii xviii Chronology

Year Events Works 1760 Death of George II; accession of [Sarah Fielding or Sarah Scott?], George III The History of Some of the Penitents in the Magdalen-House; Sarah Fielding, The History of Ophelia; Charlotte Lennox, The Lady’s Museum (1760–61) 1761 Pitt the Elder resigns over war with Sarah Scott, The History of Gustavus Spain Ericson; Frances Sheridan, The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph 1762 The Earl of Bute (a Tory) becomes Elizabeth Carter, Poems on Prime Minister Several Occasions; Sarah Fielding, Xenophon’s Memoirs of Socrates; Charlotte Lennox, Sophia; Sarah Scott, A Description of Millenium Hall and The History of Mecklenburgh 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Frances Brooke, The History of Years’ War Lady Julia Mandeville; Catharine Macaulay, The History of England (1763–83); Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Embassy Letters (written 1716–18); Frances Sheridan, The Discovery 1764 James Hargreaves invents the Phebe Gibbes, The Life and Spinning Jenny Adventures of Mr Francis Clive 1765 Stamp Act; acquisition of Bengal by Britain 1766 Stamp Act repealed; Declaratory Sarah Scott, The History of Sir Act George Ellison 1767 1768 Cook’s first voyage; Royal Academy of Arts founded; Octennial Act: Parliamentary reform in Ireland; first edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica begun 1769 Wilkes expelled from Parliament Frances Brooke, The History of Emily Montague; Elizabeth Griffith, The Delicate Distress; Charlotte Lennox, The Sister; Elizabeth Montagu, Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare Chronology xix

Year Events Works 1770 Horatio Nelson enters the Navy; Lady’s Magazine begins publication Boston Massacre; Botany Bay (1770–1820) discovered by Cook 1771 First edition of Encyclopaedia Elizabeth Griffith, The History of Britannica completed Lady Barton 1772 The Somersett case made slavery Sarah Scott, The Test of Filial Duty in England, but not in the British and The Life of Theodore Agrippa empire, illegal; Cook’s second D’Aubigné voyage; Royal Marriages Act 1773 Boston Tea Party; Warren Hastings Anna Laetitia Aikin [Barbauld], becomes first governor general in Poems; Hester Chapone, Letters India; Regulation Act on the Improvement of the Mind; Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects 1774 Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen; Mary Scott, The Female Advocate accession of Louise XVI of France; the case of Donaldson versus Beckett puts an end to perpetual copyright; Quebec Act; Intolerable Acts 1775 American Revolution begins with Anna Laetitia Barbauld, the Battle of Lexington Devotional Pieces; Hester Chapone, Miscellanies in Verse and Prose; Hannah More, The Inflexible Captive; Mary Robinson, Poems by Mrs Robinson 1776 Declaration of Independence Hannah Cowley, The Runaway signed; Cook’s third voyage 1777 British defeated at Saratoga; Battle Frances Brooke, The Excursion; of Brandywine (Canada vs. North Hannah More, Percy; Clara America) Reeve, The Champion of Virtue (published in 1778 as The Old English Baron) 1778 France declares war on Britain over Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Lessons America for Children; Frances Burney, Evelina and The Witlings (1778–80); Mary Hamilton, Munster Village 1779 Spain declares war on Britain over Hannah Cowley, Albina and Who’s America the Dupe?; Hannah More, The Fatal Falsehood

(Continued) xx Chronology

Year Events Works 1780 Gordon Riots; taxes imposed on Hannah Cowley, The Belle’s all adult male servants; ‘Dunning’s Stratagem; Sophia Lee, The Chapter Motion’: influence of the Crown of Accidents should be lessened; inheritance tax introduced; Cornwallis led expedition to southern colonies of North America; Society for Constitutional Information founded; League of Armed Neutrality established; Battle of Charleston 1781 Surrender at Yorktown; Battle of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Hymns in Guildford Courthouse; William Prose for Children Herschel discovers planet Uranus 1782 The Foreign Office established in Frances Burney, Cecilia; Hannah Britain; James Watt invented rotary More, Sacred Dramas movement of the steam engine; Gilbert’s Act: modifications to the existing Poor Law; American colonists achieve independence from British 1783 American Revolution ends Hannah Cowley, A Bold Stroke for with Treaty of Versailles; Pitt a Husband becomes Prime Minister; Montgolfier brothers’ balloon flight; Newgate prison replaces Tyburn as the place for public executions 1784 Britain introduces India Act Elizabeth Inchbald, The Mogul Tale; Anna Seward, Louisa; Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets (new edns through 1814) 1785 Edward Cartwright patents the Anna Maria Bennett, Anna; power loom or Memoirs of a Welch Heiress; Elizabeth Inchbald, I’ll Tell you What; Sophia Lee, The Recess; Clara Reeve, The Progress of Romance; Charlotte Smith, Manon Lescaut; Ann Yearsley, Poems on Several Occasions Chronology xxi

Year Events Works 1786 Helen Cowley, School for Greybeards; Elizabeth Inchbald, The Widow’s Vow; Harriet Lee, The Errors of Innocence; Hester Thrale Piozzi, Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson; Sarah Trimmer, Fabulous Histories; Hannah Maria Williams, Poems 1787 Signing of the American Elizabeth Helme, Louisa; or, Constitution; impeachment of the Cottage on the Moor; Elizabeth Warren Hastings; founding of Inchbald, Such Things Are; the Society for Effecting the Charlotte Smith, The Romance Abolition of the Slave Trade of Real Life; Sarah Trimmer, The Oeconomy of Charity; Mary Wollstonecraft, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters 1788 Founding of Botany Bay penal Elizabeth Inchbald, The Child colony; Analytical Review and of Nature; Hannah More, Slavery, The Times first published; death a Poem; Charlotte Smith, of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Emmeline; Mary Wollstonecraft, France Mary, a Fiction and Original Stories; Ann Yearsley, A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade 1789 Storming of the Bastille; outbreak Charlotte Brooke, Reliques of of French Revolution; King Irish Poetry; Phebe Gibbes, George’s first bout of madness; Hartley House, Calcutta; Ann the mutiny on the Bounty; Radcliffe, Castles of Athlin and Declaration of Rights of Man Dunbayne; Charlotte Smith, Ethelinde 1790 The founding of the Literary Fund Charlotte Lennox, Euphemia; (later the Royal Literary Fund) Catharine Macaulay, Letters on Education; Amelia Opie, The Dangers of Coquetry; Ann Radcliffe, A Sicilian Romance; Mary Robinson, Ainsi va le Monde; Helen Maria Williams, Letters from France (1790–96) and Julia; Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men

(Continued) xxii Chronology

Year Events Works 1791 Parliament rejects bill to abolish Anna Laetitia Barbauld, the slave trade; Birmingham Riots; Epistle to William Wilberforce; foundation of United Irishmen Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story; Ann Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest; Mary Robinson, Poems; Charlotte Smith, Celestina 1792 Sugar boycott commences; Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Evenings founding of London Corresponding at Home (1792–96); Janet Little, Society; the September Massacres The Poetical Works of Janet Little, (France); Seditious Libel Act the Scotch Milkmaid; Hannah More, Village Politics; Clara Reeve, Plans of Education; Mary Robinson, Vancenza; Charlotte Smith, Desmond; Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1793 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Sins of executed; the Reign of Terror begins Government; Mary Hays, Letters and in France; Britain declares war on Essays, Moral and Miscellaneous; France Elizabeth Inchbald, Every One has His Fault; Charlotte Smith, The Emigrants and The Old Manor House 1794 Execution of Robespierre (France); Ann Radcliffe, Mysteries of habeas corpus suspended; Treason Udolpho; Mary Robinson, The Trials Widow; Charlotte Smith, The Banished Man and The Wanderings of Warwick; Priscilla Wakefield, Mental Improvement (1794–97); Mary Wollstonecraft, An Historical and Moral View of ... The French Revolution 1795 Treasonable Practises and Seditious Maria Edgeworth, Letters for Meetings Acts passed; Prussia Literary Ladies; Eliza Fenwick, and Spain make peace with Secresy; Mary Meeke, Count France; Speenhamland Poor Relief St. Blanchard; Hannah More, introduced in Southern England Cheap Repository Tracts (1795–98); Charlotte Smith, Montalbert and Rural Walks; Ann Yearsley, The Royal Captives Chronology xxiii

Year Events Works 1796 Edward Jenner develops smallpox Frances Burney, Camilla; Sarah vaccination; Napoleon defends Harriet Burney, Clarentine; Maria Paris Edgeworth, The Parent’s Assistant; Elizabeth Hamilton, Letters of a Hindoo Rajah; Mary Hays, Memoirs of Emma Courtney; Elizabeth Inchbald, Nature and Art; Mary Robinson, Angelina, Hubert de Sevrac and Sappho and Phaon; Regina Maria Roche, Children of the Abbey; Anna Seward, Llangollen Vale; Charlotte Smith, Marchmont and Rambles Farther; Priscilla Wakefield, Introduction to Botany; Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark 1797 Napoleon takes command of the Harriet Lee [and Sophia Lee], French Army of Italy; Anti-Jacobin Canterbury Tales (1797–1805); first published; monetary crisis: Ann Radcliffe, The Italian; Mary cash payments suspended at Robinson, Walsingham the Bank of England; The Bank Restriction Act; Nove Naval Mutiny; Spithead Naval Mutiny; legislation passed regarding ‘Administering oaths by Unlawful Societies’ (penal offence in Britain); Treaty of Campo Formio: France defeats Austria 1798 Irish Rebellion; habeas corpus Joanna Baillie, Plays on the suspended; Battle of the Nile; Passions (vol. I); Maria and coalition between Britain, Austria, R.L. Edgeworth, Practical Portugal, Naples, and Turkey Education; Mary Hays, An Appeal to formed against France; Invasion the Men of Great Britain in Behalf Crisis of Women; Elizabeth Inchbald, Lovers’ Vows; Charlotte Smith, The Young Philosopher; Priscilla Wakefield, Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female Sex; Mary Wollstonecraft, The Wrongs of Woman; or Maria (Continued) xxiv Chronology

Year Events Works 1799 London Corresponding Society Mary Hays, The Victim of Prejudice; declared illegal; Napoleon becomes Hannah More, Strictures on the First Consul of France; Royal Modern System of Female Education; Institution founded; introduction Mary Ann Radcliffe, The Female of income tax for the wealthy Advocate; Mary Robinson, The False Friend, The Natural Daughter and A Letter to the Women of England; Anna Seward, Original Sonnets; Jane West, Letters to a Lady 1800 Act of Union with Ireland; Anne Bannerman, Poems; Maria Trevithick invents non-condensing, Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent and high pressure engine; Census Act Ennui; Elizabeth Hamilton, (Britain) Memoirs of Modern Philosophers; Mary Robinson, Lyrical Tales; Charlotte Smith, Letters of a Solitary Wanderer 1801 First British census; act to reduce Maria Edgeworth, Belinda, Early costs of illegal enclosure of land Lessons and Moral Tales for Young People; Elizabeth Hamilton, Letters on ... Education; Amelia Opie, Father and Daughter; Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan), Poems; Mary Robinson, The Memoirs of Mrs Robinson; Priscilla Wakefield, The Juvenile Travellers 1802 Edinburgh Review begins Joanna Baillie, Plays on the Passions publication; Peace of Amiens ended (vol. II); Amelia Opie, Poems; Jane war with France; first Factory Act, West, The Infidel Father limiting hours and establishing working conditions 1803 Resumption of war with France Mary Hays, Female Biography; Sydney Owenson, St. Clair; Jane Porter, Thaddeus of Warsaw 1804 Napoleon becomes Emperor of the Mary Matilda Betham, French A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country; Maria Edgeworth, Popular Tales; Mary Hays, Harry Clinton; Anna Seward, Memoirs of the Life of Dr Darwin; Charlotte Smith, Conversations Introducing Poetry; Priscilla Wakefield, A Family Tour through the British Empire Chronology xxv

Year Events Works 1805 Battle of Trafalgar Charlotte Dacre, Hours of Solitude and Confessions of the Nun of St Omer; Maria Edgeworth, The Modern Griselda; Elizabeth Inchbald, To Marry, or Not to Marry; Hannah More, Hints for Forming the Character of a Young Princess; Amelia Opie, Adeline Mowbray; Sydney Owenson, Hibernian Melodies and The Novice of Saint Domnick; Mary Tighe, Psyche 1806 Deaths of William Pitt and Charles Charlotte Dacre, Zofloya; Fox Maria Edgeworth, Leonora; Jane Marcet, Conversations on Chemistry; Sydney Owenson, The Wild Irish Girl; Charlotte Smith, The History of England; Ann and Jane Taylor, Rhymes for the Nursery 1807 British Parliament abolishes the Harriet Corp, An Antidote to the slave trade; founding of the Female Miseries of Human Life; Sydney Penitentiary Owenson, Patriotic Sketches of Ireland and Hibernian Melodies; Charles and Mary Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare; Anna Maria Porter, The Hungarian Brothers; Charlotte Smith, The Natural History of Birds and Beachy Head, Fables and Other Poems 1808 Napoleon invades Spain: start of Anne Grant, Memoirs of an the Peninsular War American Lady; Elizabeth Hamilton, The Cottagers of Glenburnie; Felicia Hemans, Poems and England and Spain; Amelia Opie, The Warrior’s Return and Other Poems 1809 Drury Lane Theatre destroyed by Maria Edgeworth, Ennui and fire; opening of the new Covent Tales of Fashionable Life; Hannah Garden Theatre More, Coelebs in Search of a Wife; Sydney Owenson, Woman; or, Ida of Athens; Anna Maria Porter, Don Sebastian

(Continued) xxvi Chronology

Year Events Works 1810 Burdett riots, London Lucy Aikin, Epistles on Women; Joanna Baillie, The Family Legend; Mary Russell Mitford, Poems; Anne Plumptre, Narrative of a Three Years’ Residence in France; Jane Porter, The Scottish Chiefs; Ann and Jane Taylor, Hymns for Infant Minds 1811 Prince of Wales becomes Prince Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility; Regent; Luddite riots in the Mary Brunton, Self-Control; Midlands and the north of Britain Charlotte Dacre, The Passions; (last through 1816) Alicia LeFanu, Strathallan; Mary Leadbetter, Cottage Dialogues among the Irish Peasantry; Sydney Owenson, The Missionary: an Indian Tale; Mary Russell Mitford, Christina; Hannah More, Practical Piety 1812 Assassination of British Prime Joanna Baillie, Plays on the Minister Spencer Perceval; War of Passions (vol. III); Anna Laetitia 1812 between Britain and America Barbauld, Eighteen Hundred and begins; Napoleon’s invasion of Eleven; Elizabeth Benger, Marian, Russia The Absentee; Felicia Hemans, The Domestic Affections and Other Poems; Mary Russell Mitford, Watlington Hill; Hannah More, Christian Morals; Amelia Opie, Temper; or, Domestic Scenes; Jane West, The Loyalists: An Historical Novel 1813 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Mary Russell Mitford, Narrative Poems on the Female Character; Amelia Opie, Tales of Real Life 1814 Treaty of Ghent ends war between Jane Austen, Mansfield Park; America and Britain; anti-Napoleon Mary Brunton, Discipline; coalition invade France; Napoleon Frances Burney, The Wanderer; exiled to Elba; end of Peninsular Maria Edgeworth, Patronage; War Sydney Owenson, O’Donel; Anna Maria Porter, The Recluse of Norway Chronology xxvii

Year Events Works 1815 Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon Mary Hays, The Brothers escapes Elba and later exiled to St Helena; passing of the Corn Laws; Restoration of Louis XVIII; Davy Lamp invented: deep mining now possible 1816 Spa Fields Riot, London; Coinage Jane Austen, Emma; Lady Caroline Act: Britain adopts the Gold Lamb, Glenarvon; Felicia Hemans, Standard; income tax abolished The Restoration of the Works of Art in Britain; Bread or Blood Riots to Italy; Hannah More, Poems in response to inflation and high unemployment 1817 Habeas corpus suspended Maria Edgeworth, Ormond and Harrington; Mary Hays, Family Annals; Felicia Hemans, Modern Greece. A Poem; Sydney Owenson, France; Anna Maria Porter, The Knight of St John; Jane Porter, The Pastor’s Fireside 1818 Habeas corpus restored Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion; Susan Ferrier, Marriage; Sydney Owenson, Florence Macarthy; Mary Shelley, Frankenstein 1819 Peterloo Massacre; first steam Felicia Hemans, Tales and Historic powered crossing of Atlantic; Scenes; Jane Marcet, Conversations London riots; Cato Street on Natural Philosophy; Hannah Conspiracy; Six Acts: stamp duty More, Moral Sketches of Prevailing on publications; Second Factory Act Opinions and Manners 1820 Death of George III; accession of Caroline Bowles, Ellen Fitzarthur; George IV; revolution in Spain Felicia Hemans, The Sceptic, A Poem; Amelia Opie, Tales of the Heart 1821 Death of Napoleon; cash payments Joanna Baillie, Metrical Legends resumed by Bank of England of Exalted Characters; Mary Hays, Memoirs of Queens, Illustrious and Celebrated; Felicia Hemans, Dartmoor; Laetitia Landon, The Fate of Adelaide; Sydney Owenson, Italy 1822 The New Marriage Act; Corn Caroline Bowles, The Widow’s Tale; Law Amendment Act; Irish Amelia Opie, Madeline Constabulary founded

(Continued) xxviii Chronology

Year Events Works 1823 Society for the Mitigation and Felicia Hemans, The Siege of Gradual Abolition of Slavery Valencia and The Vespers of founded Palermo; Harriet Martineau, Devotional Exercises; Mary Shelley, Valperga 1824 Opening of the National Gallery; Susan Ferrier, The Inheritance; Westminster Review begins Laetitia Landon, The Improvisatrice; publication; Combination Acts Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village; repealed; RSPCA founded Sydney Owenson, The Life and Times of Salvator Rosa 1825 Economic depression in Britain; Felicia Hemans, The Forest act to reinstate the Combination Sanctuary; Maria Jane Jewsbury, Laws in Britain; Law Society Phantasmagoria; Letitia Landon, established; first steam-powered The Troubadour; Amelia Opie, locomotive travels between Illustrations of Lying in all its Stockton and Darlington Branches 1826 Founding of the Society for the Caroline Bowles, Solitary Hours; Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Harriet Martineau, Addresses, and the University of London; with Prayers and Original Hymns; Britain favours state-aided Ann Radcliffe, Gaston de emigration; first railway crisis in Blondeville; Mary Shelley, The Britain (finances) Last Man 1827 Treaty of London: to protect the Felicia Hemans, Hymns on nation from foreign threats the Works of Nature; Sydney Owenson, The O’Briens and the O’Flahertys; Charlotte Tonna, The System; Jane Webb, The Mummy 1828 Duke of Wellington becomes Felicia Hemans, Records of Prime Minister; repeal of the Test Women with Other Poems; Maria and Corporation Acts Jane Jewsbury, Letters to the Young; Amelia Opie, Detraction Displayed; Mary Russell Mitford, Rienzi 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act; Maria Jane Jewsbury, Lays of founding of the Metropolitan Leisure Hours; Letitia Landon, Police by Robert Peel The Venetian Bracelet ... and Other Poems; Harriet Martineau, Traditions of Palestine; Sydney Owenson, The Book of the Boudoir Chronology xxix

Year Events Works 1830 George IV dies; accession of Catherine Gore, Women as they William IV Are; Maria Jane Jewsbury, The Three Histories; Felicia Hemans, Songs of the Affections; Sydney Owenson, France in 1829–30; Mary Shelley, The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck

(With thanks to Jennie Batchelor and Adrian Wallbank, whose help in composing this chronology was invaluable)