Charlotte Smith

Charlotte Turner Smith (1749-1806). Portrait by George Romney (1734-1802), 1792. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Charlotte Turner Smith (4 May 1749 - 28 October 1806) was an English Romantic poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels.

Life

Overview

Smith, the eldest daughter of Nicholas Turner of Stoke House, Surrey, was born in London on the 4th of May 1749. She left school when she was 12 years old to enter society. She married in 1765 Benjamin Smith, son of a merchant who was a director of the East India Company. They lived initially with her father-in-law, who thought highly of her business abilities, and wished to keep her with him; but in 1774 Charlotte and her husband went to live in Hampshire. The elder Smith died in 1776, leaving a complicated will, and 6 years later Benjamin Smith was imprisoned for debt. Charlotte had in her youth shown considerable promise as a poet, and in her misfortunes she was able to maintain herself and her family by her pen. Her earliest publication was Elegiac Sonnets and other Essays (1784), dedicated by permission to William Hayley, and printed at her own expense. For some months Mrs Smith. and her family lived in a tumble-down château near Dieppe, where she produced a translation of Manon Lescaut (1785) and a Romance of Real Life (1786), borrowed from Les Causes Célèbres. On her return to England Mrs. Smith carried out a friendly separation between herself and her husband, and from then on devoted herself to novel writing. Her chief works are: Emmeline, or the Orphan of the Castle (1788); Celestina (1792); Desmond (1792); The Old Manor House (1793); The Young Philosopher (1798); and Conversations introducing Poetry (1804). She died at Tilford, near Farnham, Surrey, on 28 October 1806.

Youth and education

Smith was born in London on 4 May 1749 at King Street, St. James's, the eldest daughter of Nicholas Turner of Stoke House, Surrey, and Bignor Park, Sussex, by his wife, Anna (Towers).

When Charlotte was little more than 3 years old her mother died, and the child was brought up by an aunt, who sent her at the early age of 6 to a school at Chichester, and afterwards to another at Kensington. The education she received there was exceedingly superficial, and ceased entirely at the age of 12, when Charlotte entered society.

At the age of 14 she received an offer of marriage, which was refused by her father on the score of her youth. In 1764 her father married a 2nd wife, a woman of fortune. Charlotte's aunt at that time had an aversion to stepmothers, and hurriedly arranged a marriage for her niece with Benjamin Smith, 2nd son of Richard Smith, a West India merchant, and director of the East India Company. The wedding took place on 23 February 1765. The youthful couple (the husband was only 21) lived over the elder Smith's house of business in the city of London, and Charlotte was in enforced attendance on an invalid mother-in-law of exacting disposition. The marriage was not affectionate; both parties had been talked into it, by officious relatives, and it is not surprising that Charlotte found life dreary. Her father-in-law, on the death of his wife, married Charlotte's aunt.

Charlotte was now free to indulge her desire of living in the country. Her father-in-law, however, entertained a high opinion of her abilities, and offered her a considerable allowance if she would live in London and assist him in his business. He had on an occasion when he was libelled employed her to write a vindication of his character, a task that she fulfilled admirably. But a town life had never pleased her, and in 1774, with her husband and 7 children, she went to live at Lys Farm, Hampshire.

Her husband was for a time high sheriff of Hampshire (cf. L'Estrange, Life of M.R. Mitford, iii. 148; Letters of M. R. Mitford, ed. Chorley, 2nd ser. i. 29). But his extravagance and his attempts to realise wild and ruinous projects, propensities somewhat kept in check while he was living in his father's house, began to cause his wife uneasiness. She once expressed to a friend a desire that her husband should find rational employment. The friend suggested that his enthusiasm might be directed towards religion. ‘Oh!’ replied Charlotte, ‘for heaven's sake do not put it into his head to take to religion, for if he does he will instantly begin by building a cathedral’ (Nichols, Illustrations, viii. 35).

In 1776 the elder Smith died, leaving a complicated will. The ensuing litigation increased the pecuniary difficulties of Charlotte and her husband; the Hampshire estate was sold, and in 1782 Smith was imprisoned for debt. His wife shared his confinement, which lasted for seven months.

For some years she had been in the habit of writing sonnets, and it occurred to her that her compositions might afford a means of livelihood. She showed 14 or 15 of them to Robert Dodsley, and afterwards to Charles Dilly, but neither would publish them. She then appealed to William Hayley — known to her by reputation, and a neighbour of her family in Sussex — who permitted her to dedicate to him a thin quarto volume of sonnets (Elegiac Sonnets and other Essays). It was printed at Chichester at her own expense, and published by Dodsley at Hayley's persuasion in 1784. The poems found favor with the public; a 2nd edition was called for the same year, and a 5th in 1789. They were reissued with a 2nd volume and plates by Stothard, under the title of Elegiac Sonnets and other poems, in 1797. Among the subscribers to that edition were the archbishop of Canterbury, William Cowper, Charles James Fox, Horace Walpole, Mrs. Siddons, and the 2 Wartons. There were altogether 11 editions of the poems, the last dated in 1851.

But the circumstances of Mrs. Smith's family scarcely improved. They lived for a while in a dilapidated chateau near Dieppe in France, and there Mrs. Smith translated Prévost's Manon Lescaut (1785), and wrote the Romance of Real Life, an English version of some of the most remarkable trials from Les Causes Célèbres; it appeared in 1786. About this time the family returned to England and settled at Woolbeding House, near Midhurst in Sussex.

Mrs. Smith soon decided that a separation from her husband would be best for all concerned. The only reason assigned was incompatibility of temper, and the children remained with the mother. The husband and wife occasionally met and constantly corresponded; Mrs. Smith continued to give her husband financial assistance, but firmly refused to live with him again. He died in March 1806.

Novelist

In 1788 Charlotte Smith published her debut novel, Emmeline, or the Orphan of the Castle, in 4 volumes, and it was so successful that her publisher, Thomas Cadell, supplemented the sum originally paid. It was admired by Sir Egerton Brydges and Sir Walter Scott. The latter indulgently declared the "tale of love and passion" to be "told in a most interesting manner," praised the mingling of humor and satire with pathos, and considered that the "characters both of sentiment and of manners were sketched with a firmness of pencil and liveliness of colouring which belong to the highest branch of fictitious narrative." Hayley was even more extravagant in his praises (cf. Nichols, Lit. Illustr. vii. 708). Anna Seward, on the other hand, found it a servile imitation of Fanny Burney's Cecilia,; and stated that the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Stafford were drawn from Mrs. Smith and her husband (Letters, ii. 213).

A 2nd novel, Celestina, in 4 volumes, came out in 1792, and was characterised as "a work of no common merit" (cf. Nichols, Lit. Illustr. vii. 715), and a 3rd, Desmond, in 3 volumes, in 1792. The character of Mrs. Manby in the last is said to represent Hannah More (Seward, Letters, iii. 329). In 1792 Mrs. Smith visited Hayley at Eartham, and met there Cowper, and probably Romney (Hayley, Memoirs, i. 432). The Old Manor House, in 4 volumes, considered by Scott her best piece of work, appeared in 1793.

Failing health was now added to the ever present money and family troubles. But Mrs. Smith's cheerful temperament enabled her to abstract herself from her cares, and publish a novel each year till 1799.

Caldwell, writing to Bishop Percy in 1801, says: "Charlotte Smith is writing more volumes of “The Solitary Wanderer” for immediate subsistence. … She is a woman full of sorrows. One of her daughters made an imprudent marriage, and the man, after behaving extremely ill and tormenting the family, died. The widow has come to her mother not worth a shilling, and with three young children" (Nichols, Lit. Illustr. viii. 38).

In 1804 appeared her ‘Conversations introducing Poetry,’ a book treating chiefly of subjects connected with natural history for the use of children. It contains her versions of the well-known poems "The Ladybird" and "The Snail."

During the latter years of her life Mrs. Smith made many changes of residence, living at London, Brighthelmstone, and Bath. In 1805 she moved to Tilford, near Farnham in Surrey, where she died on 28 October 1806. She was buried in Stoke church, near Guildford

Of her 12 children, 8 survived her. Her youngest son, George Augustus, a lieutenant in the 16th foot, died at Surinam on 16 September, 5 weeks before his mother. Another son, Lionel (1778-1842), rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the army. He became K.C.B. in 1832 and from 1833 to 1839 was governor of the Windward and Leeward Islands.

Writing

CHARLOTTE TURNER SMITH ~ Part One of three

Novels

Smith's novels are autobiographical. While a common device at the time, Antje Blank writes in The Literary Encyclopedia, "few exploited fiction's potential of self-representation with such determination as Smith". For example, Mr. and Mrs. Stafford in Emmeline are portraits of Charlotte and Benjamin.Zimmerman, 2007.</ref> The prefaces to Smith's novels told the story of her own struggles, including the deaths of several of her children. According to Zimmerman, "Smith mourned most publicly for her daughter Anna Augusta, who married an émigré...and died aged 20 in 1795." Smith's prefaces positioned her as both a suffering sentimental heroine as well as a vocal critic of the laws that kept her and her children in poverty.

Her epistolary novel Desmond tells the story of a man who journeys to revolutionary France, is convinced of the rightness of the revolution, and contends that England should be reformed as well. The novel was published in June 1792, a year before France and England went to war and before the Reign of Terror (which shocked the British public, turning them against the revolutionaries). Like many radicals, Smith criticized the French, but she still endorsed the original ideals of the revolution.

In order to support her family, Smith had to sell her works, thus she was eventually forced to, as Blank explains, "tone down the radicalism that had characterised the authorial voice in Desmond and adopt more oblique techniques to express her libertarian ideals". She therefore set her next novel, The Old Manor House (1793), during the American Revolutionary War, which allowed her to discuss democratic reform without directly addressing the French situation.

The Old Manor House is "frequently deemed [Smith's] best" novel for its sentimental themes and development of minor characters. Novelist Walter Scott labeled it as such.

Verse

Smith was a successful writer, publishing 10 novels, 3 books of poetry, 4 children's books, and other assorted works, over the course of her career. She always saw herself as a poet above all, however, as poetry was considered the most exalted form of literature at the time.

If there is nothing great in Mrs. Smith's poems, they are "natural and touching" (cf. Leigh Hunt, Men, Women, and Books, ii. 139). Mary Russell Mitford told Elizabeth Barrett that she never took a spring walk without feeling Charlotte Smith's love of external nature and her power of describing it (cf. L'Estrange, Life of M.R. Mitford, iii. 148), and in a letter to Mrs. Hofland declared that "she had, with all her faults, the eye and the mind of a landscape poet" (Letters of M.R. Mitford, ed. Chorley, 2nd ser. i. 29).

Stuart Curran, the editor of Smith's poems, has written that Smith is "the first poet in England whom in retrospect we would call Romantic". She helped shape the "patterns of thought and conventions of style" for the period. Romantic poet William Wordsworth was the most affected by her works. He said of Smith in the 1830s that she was "a lady to whom English verse is under greater obligations than are likely to be either acknowledged or remembered".

Critical reputation

Smith's poetry and prose was praised by contemporaries such as Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge as well as novelist Walter Scott. After 1798, Smith's popularity waned, and by the 2nd half of the 19th century, her work was largely forgotten.

Smith's novels were republished at the end of the 20th century, and "critics interested in the period's women poets and prose writers, the Gothic novel, the historical novel, the social problem novel, and post-colonial studies" have argued for her significance as a writer. They looked to the contemporary documentation of her importance, discovering that she helped to revitalize the English sonnet, a fact recognized by Coleridge and others. Scott wrote that she "preserves in her landscapes the truth and precision of a painter" and poet and Barbauld claimed that Smith was the earliest to include sustained natural description in novels.

Recognition

Smith's portrait was painted by Opie. A drawing from the picture by G. Clint, A.R.A., was engraved by A. Duncan and by Freeman. There is an engraving by Ridley and Holt of what seems to be another picture, and an unsigned engraving in which Mrs. Smith is represented in a curious dress. Her head in outline appears in Public Characters (1800–1).

A monument by John Bacon Jr. marks her resting-place in Stoke church.

Poet and critic Anna Laetitia Barbauld included The Old Manor-House in her anthology of The British Novelists (1810).

In 2008 Smith's entire prose collection became available to the general public, when published by Pickering & Chatto. This edition (containing all the novels, the children's stories, and Rural Walks) was edited by Smith expert Stuart Curran, and was published within 6 months of Pickering & Chatto's collections of essays upon the works of Charlotte Smith, edited by Jacqueline Labbe.

Publications

Poetry

• Elegiac Sonnets, and other poems. 3rd edition, London: Printed for J. Dodsley / H. Gardner / J. Bew, 1786.
• The Emigrants: A poem in two books. London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1793.
• Beachy Head; with other poems. London: privately published, 1807.
• Poems (edited by Stuart Curran). London: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Play

• What Is She?: A comedy, in five acts, as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. London: Printed for T.N. Longman & O. Rees, 1799.

Novels

• Emmeline; or, The orphan of the castle. (4 volumes, London : printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1789. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV
• Ethelinde; or, The recluse of the lake. (5 volumes), London: T. Cadell, 1789.
• Celestina: A novel. (4 volumes), Dublin: R. Cross / P. Wogan / P. Byrne / et al, 1791. Volume I, Volume II, Volume II, Volume IV
• Desmond: A novel (3 volumes), London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson 1792. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III
• The Old Manor House. (4 volumes), London: J. Bell, 1793. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV
• Wanderings of Warwick. London: J. Bell, 1794.
• The Banished Man: A novel (4 volumes), London: T. Cadell, jun. & W. Davies, 1794.
• Montalbert: A novel. (3 volumes), London: S. Low, for E. Booker, 1795; London: S. Low, 1796. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III
• Marchmont: A novel (4 volumes), London: Sampson Low, 1796.
• The Young Philosopher: A novel. (4 volumes), London : printed for T. Cadell, jun. & W. Davies, in the Strand, 1798.
• The Republican's Mistress: A novel founded upon facts. (3 volumes), London: Wright, 1821. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III

Short fiction

• Letters of a Solitary Wanderer: Containing narratives of various description. (3 volumes), London: Sampson Low, 1800. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III

Juvenile

• Rural Walks, in Dialogues: Intended for the use of young persons. (2 volumes), London : printed by A. Strahan for T. Cadell jun. and W. Davies, Strand, 1800.
• Rambles Farther: A continuation of Rural Walks, in dialogues: Intended for the use of young persons. London: printed for T. Cadell jun. & W. Davies, (successors to Mr. Cadell) in the Strand, 1796.
• Minor Morals: Interspersed with sketches of natural history, historical anecdotes, and original stories. London: Sampson Low, 1798; Dublin printed by H. Colbert, 1800.
• Conversations Introducing Poetry. 1819.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems - Charlotte Turner Smith - Poetry - Talking Book - English - 1-2

Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems - Charlotte Turner Smith - Poetry - Audiobook full unabridged - 2-2

• Early Romantics
• List of British poets
• Timeline of Britiish poetry

References

• Blank, Antje. "Charlotte Smith" (subscription only). The Literary Encyclopedia. 23 June 2003. Retrieved 6 February 2009.
• Curran, Stuart. "Introduction". The Poems of Charlotte Smith. Women Writers in English 1350-1850. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN 019508358X.
• Fry, Carrol Lee. Charlotte Smith. New York: Twayne, 1996. ISBN 0805770461.
• Hoeveler, Diane Long. Gothic Feminism: The Professionalization of Gender from Charlotte Smith to the Brontes. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. ISBN 0271033614.
• Klekar, Cynthia. “The Obligations of Form: Social Practice in Charlotte Smith’s Emmeline.” Philological Quarterly 86, no. 3 (2007): 269-89.
• Labbe, Jacqueline M. Charlotte Smith: romanticism, poetry, and the culture of gender. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003. ISBN 0719060044.
•  Lee, Elizabeth (1898) "Smith, Charlotte]
  " in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 53 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 27-29  Wikisource, Web, Apr. 6, 2021.
• Zimmerman, Sarah M (2007). "Smith [née Turner], Charlotte". Smith [née Turner], Charlotte. OUP. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25790. 

External links

Poems

• "Written at the close of Spring"
• Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806) at Representative Poetry Online ("Huge Vapours Brood above the Clifted Shore")
• Charlotte Smith 1749-1806 at the Poetry Foundation
• Charlotte Smith (1749-1806) info & 6 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830
• Charlotte Smith at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (68 poems)
• Charlotte Smith at PoemHunter (126 poems)
• Charlotte Smith at Poetry Nook (223 poems)

Audio / video

• Chrlotte Smith at The Poetry Archive
• Charlotte Smith poems at YouTube
• [1] [2] [3] Jacqueline Labbe (Warwick University) talks about the life and works of Charlotte Turner Smith

Books

• Selected works of Smith at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln
• Emmeline (1789, third edition), Vol. 1, Vol. 2 Vol. 3, and Vol. 4 at Google Books
• Celestina (1791, second edition), Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, and Vol.4 at Google Books
• Charlotte Turner Smith at Amazon.com

About

• Charlotte Smith in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Smith, Charlotte
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Original article is at Smith, Charlotte