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, 1500–1610Volume Two

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

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

Forthcoming titles:

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

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

History of British Women’s WritingSeries 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, 1750–1830Volume Five

Edited by

Jacqueline M. Labbe

Selection and editorial matter © Jacqueline M. Labbe 2010Individual chapters © contributors 2010

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

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First published 2010 byPALGRAVE MACMILLAN

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 119 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10

ISBN 978-1-349-36198-4 ISBN 978-0-230-29701-2 (eBook)DOI 10.1057/9780230297012

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-55071-1

For Rod, Indie, and Nathan

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vii

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’ 1Jacqueline 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

Contents

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

ix

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

x

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 re appraisal 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

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

Series Preface xi

xii

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.

JLCoventry, 2009

Preface

xiii

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.

xiv

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.

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.

Notes on the Contributors xv

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).

xvi Notes on the Contributors

xvii

Chronology

Year Events Works

1750 Population of Britain reaches 5.7 million

Sarah Scott, The History of Cornelia

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; founding of British Museum

Jane Collier, An Essay on the Art 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 begins; Royal Society of Arts founded

Sarah Fielding and Jane Collier, The Cry; Eliza Haywood, The 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; Critical Review begins publication

Frances Brooke, Virginia; Eliza Haywood, The Husband

1757 Victory in Battle of Plassey consolidated British power in Indian subcontinent via East India Company

Sarah Fielding, The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia; Charlotte Lennox, Memoirs for the History of Madame de Maintenon

1758 Opening of the Magdalen House for the Reception of Penitent Prostitutes

Elizabeth Carter, All the Works of Epictetus; Charlotte Lennox, Henrietta

1759 Opening of British Museum; Siege of Quebec

Sarah Fielding, The History of the Countess of Dellwyn

(Continued)

xviii Chronology

Year Events Works

1760 Death of George II; accession of George III

[Sarah Fielding or Sarah Scott?], 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 Spain

Sarah Scott, The History of Gustavus Ericson; Frances Sheridan, The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph

1762 The Earl of Bute (a Tory) becomes Prime Minister

Elizabeth Carter, Poems on 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 Years’ War

Frances Brooke, The History of 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 Spinning Jenny

Phebe Gibbes, The Life and Adventures of Mr Francis Clive

1765 Stamp Act; acquisition of Bengal by Britain

1766 Stamp Act repealed; Declaratory Act

Sarah Scott, The History of Sir 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; Boston Massacre; Botany Bay discovered by Cook

Lady’s Magazine begins publication (1770–1820)

1771 First edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica completed

Elizabeth Griffith, The History of Lady Barton

1772 The Somersett case made slavery in England, but not in the British empire, illegal; Cook’s second voyage; Royal Marriages Act

Sarah Scott, The Test of Filial Duty and The Life of Theodore Agrippa D’Aubigné

1773 Boston Tea Party; Warren Hastings becomes first governor general in India; Regulation Act

Anna Laetitia Aikin [Barbauld], Poems; Hester Chapone, Letters on the Improvement of the Mind; Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects

1774 Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen; accession of Louise XVI of France; the case of Donaldson versus Beckett puts an end to perpetual copyright; Quebec Act; Intolerable Acts

Mary Scott, The Female Advocate

1775 American Revolution begins with the Battle of Lexington

Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Devotional Pieces; Hester Chapone, Miscellanies in Verse and Prose; Hannah More, The Inflexible Captive; Mary Robinson, Poems by Mrs Robinson

1776 Declaration of Independence signed; Cook’s third voyage

Hannah Cowley, The Runaway

1777 British defeated at Saratoga; Battle of Brandywine (Canada vs. North America)

Frances Brooke, The Excursion; Hannah More, Percy; Clara Reeve, The Champion of Virtue (published in 1778 as The Old English Baron)

1778 France declares war on Britain over America

Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Lessons for Children; Frances Burney, Evelina and The Witlings (1778–80); Mary Hamilton, Munster Village

1779 Spain declares war on Britain over America

Hannah Cowley, Albina and Who’s the Dupe?; Hannah More, The Fatal Falsehood

(Continued)

xx Chronology

Year Events Works

1780 Gordon Riots; taxes imposed on all adult male servants; ‘Dunning’s Motion’: influence of the Crown 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

Hannah Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem; Sophia Lee, The Chapter of Accidents

1781 Surrender at Yorktown; Battle of Guildford Courthouse; William Herschel discovers planet Uranus

Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Hymns in Prose for Children

1782 The Foreign Office established in Britain; James Watt invented rotary movement of the steam engine; Gilbert’s Act: modifications to the existing Poor Law; American colonists achieve independence from British

Frances Burney, Cecilia; Hannah More, Sacred Dramas

1783 American Revolution ends with Treaty of Versailles; Pitt becomes Prime Minister; Montgolfier brothers’ balloon flight; Newgate prison replaces Tyburn as the place for public executions

Hannah Cowley, A Bold Stroke for a Husband

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 power loom

Anna Maria Bennett, Anna; 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 Constitution; impeachment of Warren Hastings; founding of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade

Elizabeth Helme, Louisa; or, the Cottage on the Moor; Elizabeth Inchbald, Such Things Are; Charlotte Smith, The Romance of Real Life; Sarah Trimmer, The Oeconomy of Charity; Mary Wollstonecraft, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters

1788 Founding of Botany Bay penal colony; Analytical Review and The Times first published; death of Bonnie Prince Charlie in France

Elizabeth Inchbald, The Child of Nature; Hannah More, Slavery, a Poem; Charlotte Smith, Emmeline; Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary, a Fiction and Original Stories; Ann Yearsley, A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade

1789 Storming of the Bastille; outbreak of French Revolution; King George’s first bout of madness; the mutiny on the Bounty; Declaration of Rights of Man

Charlotte Brooke, Reliques of Irish Poetry; Phebe Gibbes, Hartley House, Calcutta; Ann Radcliffe, Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne; Charlotte Smith, Ethelinde

1790 The founding of the Literary Fund (later the Royal Literary Fund)

Charlotte Lennox, Euphemia; 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 the slave trade; Birmingham Riots; foundation of United Irishmen

Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Epistle to William Wilberforce; Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story; Ann Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest; Mary Robinson, Poems; Charlotte Smith, Celestina

1792 Sugar boycott commences; founding of London Corresponding Society; the September Massacres (France); Seditious Libel Act

Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Evenings at Home (1792–96); Janet Little, The Poetical Works of Janet Little, 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 executed; the Reign of Terror begins in France; Britain declares war on France

Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Sins of Government; Mary Hays, Letters and Essays, Moral and Miscellaneous; Elizabeth Inchbald, Every One has His Fault; Charlotte Smith, The Emigrants and The Old Manor House

1794 Execution of Robespierre (France); habeas corpus suspended; Treason Trials

Ann Radcliffe, Mysteries of Udolpho; Mary Robinson, The 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 Meetings Acts passed; Prussia and Spain make peace with France; Speenhamland Poor Relief introduced in Southern England

Maria Edgeworth, Letters for Literary Ladies; Eliza Fenwick, Secresy; Mary Meeke, Count St. Blanchard; Hannah More, 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 vaccination; Napoleon defends Paris

Frances Burney, Camilla; Sarah Harriet Burney, Clarentine; Maria 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 French Army of Italy; Anti-Jacobin first published; monetary crisis: cash payments suspended at 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

Harriet Lee [and Sophia Lee], Canterbury Tales (1797–1805); Ann Radcliffe, The Italian; Mary Robinson, Walsingham

1798 Irish Rebellion; habeas corpus suspended; Battle of the Nile; coalition between Britain, Austria, Portugal, Naples, and Turkey formed against France; Invasion Crisis

Joanna Baillie, Plays on the Passions (vol. I); Maria and R.L. Edgeworth, Practical Education; Mary Hays, An Appeal to the Men of Great Britain in Behalf 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 declared illegal; Napoleon becomes First Consul of France; Royal Institution founded; introduction of income tax for the wealthy

Mary Hays, The Victim of Prejudice; Hannah More, Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education; Mary Ann Radcliffe, The Female 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; Trevithick invents non-condensing, high pressure engine; Census Act (Britain)

Anne Bannerman, Poems; Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent and Ennui; Elizabeth Hamilton, Memoirs of Modern Philosophers; Mary Robinson, Lyrical Tales; Charlotte Smith, Letters of a Solitary Wanderer

1801 First British census; act to reduce costs of illegal enclosure of land

Maria Edgeworth, Belinda, Early 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 publication; Peace of Amiens ended war with France; first Factory Act, limiting hours and establishing working conditions

Joanna Baillie, Plays on the Passions (vol. II); Amelia Opie, Poems; Jane West, The Infidel Father

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 French

Mary Matilda Betham, 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 Fox

Charlotte Dacre, Zofloya; 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 slave trade; founding of the Female Penitentiary

Harriet Corp, An Antidote to the Miseries of Human Life; Sydney 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 the Peninsular War

Anne Grant, Memoirs of an 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 fire; opening of the new Covent Garden Theatre

Maria Edgeworth, Ennui and Tales of Fashionable Life; Hannah 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 Regent; Luddite riots in the Midlands and the north of Britain (last through 1816)

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility; Mary Brunton, Self-Control; Charlotte Dacre, The Passions; 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 Minister Spencer Perceval; War of 1812 between Britain and America begins; Napoleon’s invasion of Russia

Joanna Baillie, Plays on the Passions (vol. III); Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Eighteen Hundred and Eleven; Elizabeth Benger, Marian, 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 America and Britain; anti-Napoleon coalition invade France; Napoleon exiled to Elba; end of Peninsular War

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park; Mary Brunton, Discipline; Frances Burney, The Wanderer; Maria Edgeworth, Patronage; Sydney Owenson, O’Donel; Anna Maria Porter, The Recluse of Norway

Chronology xxvii

Year Events Works

1815 Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon escapes Elba and later exiled to St Helena; passing of the Corn Laws; Restoration of Louis XVIII; Davy Lamp invented: deep mining now possible

Mary Hays, The Brothers

1816 Spa Fields Riot, London; Coinage Act: Britain adopts the Gold Standard; income tax abolished in Britain; Bread or Blood Riots in response to inflation and high unemployment

Jane Austen, Emma; Lady Caroline Lamb, Glenarvon; Felicia Hemans, The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy; Hannah More, Poems

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 powered crossing of Atlantic; London riots; Cato Street Conspiracy; Six Acts: stamp duty on publications; Second Factory Act

Felicia Hemans, Tales and Historic Scenes; Jane Marcet, Conversations on Natural Philosophy; Hannah More, Moral Sketches of Prevailing Opinions and Manners

1820 Death of George III; accession of George IV; revolution in Spain

Caroline Bowles, Ellen Fitzarthur; Felicia Hemans, The Sceptic, A Poem; Amelia Opie, Tales of the Heart

1821 Death of Napoleon; cash payments resumed by Bank of England

Joanna Baillie, Metrical Legends 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 Law Amendment Act; Irish Constabulary founded

Caroline Bowles, The Widow’s Tale; Amelia Opie, Madeline

(Continued)

xxviii Chronology

Year Events Works

1823 Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery founded

Felicia Hemans, The Siege of Valencia and The Vespers of Palermo; Harriet Martineau, Devotional Exercises; Mary Shelley, Valperga

1824 Opening of the National Gallery; Westminster Review begins publication; Combination Acts repealed; RSPCA founded

Susan Ferrier, The Inheritance; Laetitia Landon, The Improvisatrice; Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village; Sydney Owenson, The Life and Times of Salvator Rosa

1825 Economic depression in Britain; act to reinstate the Combination Laws in Britain; Law Society established; first steam-powered locomotive travels between Stockton and Darlington

Felicia Hemans, The Forest Sanctuary; Maria Jane Jewsbury, Phantasmagoria; Letitia Landon, The Troubadour; Amelia Opie, Illustrations of Lying in all its Branches

1826 Founding of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge and the University of London; Britain favours state-aided emigration; first railway crisis in Britain (finances)

Caroline Bowles, Solitary Hours; Harriet Martineau, Addresses, with Prayers and Original Hymns; Ann Radcliffe, Gaston de Blondeville; Mary Shelley, The Last Man

1827 Treaty of London: to protect the nation from foreign threats

Felicia Hemans, Hymns on 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 Prime Minister; repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts

Felicia Hemans, Records of Women with Other Poems; Maria Jane Jewsbury, Letters to the Young; Amelia Opie, Detraction Displayed; Mary Russell Mitford, Rienzi

1829 Catholic Emancipation Act; founding of the Metropolitan Police by Robert Peel

Maria Jane Jewsbury, Lays of Leisure Hours; Letitia Landon, 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 William IV

Catherine Gore, Women as they 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)