Charlotte Turner Smith (1749-1806) was one of the most popular writers of the 1780s and 1790s and an influential contributor to the Revolution controversy in Britain. At the famous political dinner held at White's Hotel, Paris in November 1792, fifty revolutionary sympathisers with Thomas Paine at their head drank toasts to her and Helen Maria Williams. Fellow liberal intellectuals Mary Hays and William Godwin were among her correspondents and friends. Smith's contribution to the development of the British novel is indisputable: her Gothic romances Emmeline (1788), Ethelinde (1789), and Celestina (1791) are among the first examples of a feminine genre which fused narratives of persecution with lyrical landscape descr

This article in full comprises 2083 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

First published 23 June 2003

Citation: Blank, Antje. "Charlotte Smith". The Literary Encyclopedia. 23 June 2003.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4112, accessed 20 November 2009.]