Charlotte Smith and Early British Romanticism: Her Writing, Her Critics, Her Influence by Brent Raycroft Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia June 1996 © copyright by Brent Raycroft, 1996 National Library Bibliotheque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Direction des acquisitions et Bibliographic Services Branch des services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (Ontario) K1A0N4 K1A0N4 Yourltle Votre reference Our file Notre reference The author has granted an L'auteur a accorde une licence irrevocable non-exclusive licence irrevocable et non exclusive allowing the National Library of permettant a la Bibliotheque Canada to reproduce, loan, nationale du Canada ae distribute or sell copies of reproduire, prefer, distribuer ou his/her thesis by any means and vendre des copies de sa these in any form or format, making de quelque maniere et sous this thesis available to interested quelque forme que ce soit pour persons. mettre des exemplaires de cette these a la disposition des personnes interessees. 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Slate 0611 Medical 0760 Pharmacy 0572 Physiological 0989 Statistics 0463 Psychobiology 0349 Physical Therapy 0382 Psychometric! 0632 EARTH SCIENCES Public Health 0573 Applied Sciences Btogeochemislry 0425 Radiology 0574 Applied Mechanics 0346 Social 0451 Geochemistry 0996 Recreation 0575 Computer Science 0984 t, k Contents Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Epigraphs Chapter One Introduction Chapltr Two The Figure of the Author and Other Biographical Matters Chapter Three The Critical Heritage ... Chapter Four Charlotte Smith and Jane Austen Chapter Five Samuel Taylor Coleridge, W L Bowles, and Charlotte Smith's Elegiac Sonnets Chapter Six Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth- The Overcoming of Melancholy Chapter Seven Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth Gender, Genre and Politics Chapter Eight Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth Blank Verse, Fiction, and Later Influences Conclusion Works Cited or Consulted iv I I Abstract This dissertation advances the study of an author famous in her own time but only recently rediscovered by literary criticism. My three main objectives are to supply a thorough critical heritage of Charlotte Smith, to examine the processes involved in her gradual, disappearance and her more sudden revival, and to secure her place in the literary history of early British Romanticism by showing in detail her influence on her younger contemporaries, primarily Jane Austen and William Wordsworth. In my introductory chapter I suggest some of the more problematic implications of Smith's recanonization and propose a method for examining her influence in the present critical moment, when influence (anxious or otherwise) is under pressure from the broader notion of intertextuality. Chapter two focuses on biographical matters, including the autobiographical tendency in Smith's writing ana the disproportionate emphasis sometimes placed on her "life" at the expense of her "work." This chapter also surveys Smith's surprisingly extensive literary acquaintance. Chapter three is a critical history, beginning with Smith's earliest general evaluations as a writer and following her critical fortunes through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chapter four examines the influence Smith exerted, through her fiction and her poetry, on the young Jane Austen. Chapter five is a deconstructive exercise analyzing Samuel Taylor Coleridge's admiration of William Lisle Bowles and the role this relationship has played in obscuring Charlotte Smith's significance for early Romanticism. My final three chapters explore various aspects of Smith's extensive and yet subdued influence o.i William Wordsworth. These three chapters are closely inter-related,