Montalbert (1795) by: Charlotte Smith ( NOVEL ) In Three Volumes VOLUME 1,2 AND 3

by Charlotte Turner Smith

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 of sensibility. A successful writer, she published ten novels, three books of poetry, four children's books, and other assorted works, over the course of her career. She saw herself as a poet first and foremost, poetry at that period being considered the most exalted form of literature. Smith's poetry and prose were praised by contemporaries such as poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and novelist Walter Scott. Scholars now credit her with transforming the sonnet into an expression of woeful sentiment.[1] Coleridge, in 1796, remarked that -those sonnets appear to me the most exquisite, in which moral Sentiments, Affections, or Feelings, are deduced from, and associated with the scenery of Nature-.[2] After 1798, however, Smith's popularity waned and by 1803 she was destitute and ill-she could barely hold a pen, and sold her books to pay off her debts. In 1806, Smith died. Largely forgotten by the middle of the 19th century, her works have now been republished and she is recognized as an important Romantic writer. Smith was born into a wealthy family and received a typical education for a woman during the late 18th century. Her father's reckless spending then forced her to marry early. In a marriage that she later described as prostitution, she was given by her father to the violent and profligate Benjamin Smith. The match was deeply unhappy, but they had twelve children together. Charlotte joined Benjamin in debtor's prison, where she wrote her first book of poetry, Elegiac Sonnets. Its success allowed her to help pay for Benjamin's release. Benjamin's father attempted to leave money to Charlotte and her children upon his death, but legal technicalities barred her from acquiring it. Charlotte Smith eventually left Benjamin and began writing to support their children. Smith's struggle to provide for her children and her frustrated attempts to gain legal protection as a woman provided themes for her poetry and novels; she included portraits of herself and her family in her novels as well as details about her life in her prefaces. Her early novels are exercises in aesthetic development, particularly of the Gothic and sentimentality. -The theme of her many sentimental and didactic novels was that of a badly married wife helped by a thoughtful sensible lover- (Smith's entry in British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary Ed. Stanley Kunitz and Howard Haycraft. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1952. pg. 478.) Her later novels, including The Old Manor House, often considered her best, supported the ideals of the French Revolution.Smith was born on 4 May 1749 in London and baptized on 12 June; she was the oldest child of well-to-do Nicholas Turner and Anna Towers. Her two younger siblings, Nicholas and Catherine Ann, were born within the next five years. Smith's childhood was shaped by her mother

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1795

About the author

Charlotte Turner Smith 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 of sensibility.

Reviews

[Grace Harwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve ever read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, and enjoyed it, then this book is for you. This is something of a precursor to Northanger Abbey (although it’s a lot less comical). That said the first volume does have some typical Smithian wit in it and is really very enjoyable. The scene is thus: “In one of those villages immediately under the ridge of those chalky hills called the South Downs,...” Rosalie (our romantic heroine) grows up with her family, the Lessinghams. Mr Lessingham is a Rector, Mrs Lessingham is very down-to-earth and ordinary, with her only books being Hannah Glasse’s cookery and “Every Woman her own Housekeeper”. Into this dull family environment, Rosalie grows up feeling that there is some “mystery surrounding her birth”, mooching around the countryside with a heightened degree of sensibility whilst her parents chide her for being so romantic.

Both parties, it transpires, are right – Rosalie shouldn’t be so romantic – it only hurts her prospects when she falls in love (and then secretly marries) the volatile and frankly unstable Montalbert; and there is some mystery surrounding her birth. This is really a very exciting book indeed – from Mrs Glasse’s cookery and a South Downs vicarage, Rosalie travels to Sicily and experiences the earthquake of 1783. Being Smith, there is a fantastic, almost apocalyptical description of this and one can almost imagine the devastation of this enormous natural disaster, providing descriptions of great gulfs opening up in the street and swallowing the houses and the resulting tsunami which follows. Rosalie is then kidnapped and held prisoner (which temporarily solves her homelessness problem after the house was swallowed by an earthquake) but it’s not the ideal solution for her. Escaping, she then goes mad when Montalbert accuses her of infidelity and takes her baby son away from her.

Like Northanger Abbey, the gothic horror of this is present really in the contemporaneous society which Rosalie is subject to – by stepping outside of those prescripted bounds with her secret marriage, the horrors become all too real for Rosalie and can only lead to madness (if you’ve ever read Wollstonecraft’s Maria; or The wrongs of woman, you will see that this is a recurring trope for women in the fate of women in the 18th century – in fact, there might even be something in going mad for women – can it save them somehow by removing them from society – a bit like fainting does for Radcliffe’s Emily in The Mysteries of Udolpho?)

My excellent PhD supervisor told me that this is the least favourite for her of Smith’s novels because Rosalie is so pathetic. And, it’s true, Rosalie IS pathetic and does bring it all on herself, but I still LOVED this book – mainly for the inclusion of Hannah Glasses’ cookery (it’s a real book and was the cookery book of choice for the 18th century housewife – she was the Mary Berry of her day), but also for the clever way Smith twists the traditional discourse of romance novels. When Rosalie gets her happy ending, its resolution with Montalbert. I asked myself, after everything he’s put her through, is this is a happy ending? It sounds like a tragedy to me. Smith’s only really true happy ending comes in her final collection of novellas (Letters of a solitary wanderer) where in the first novella, the heroine gets to live life as a single woman with her fortune. Good on her. Rosalie’s fate is what Emmeline’s would have been, if she had married Delamere (from Smith’s first novel). Definitely recommend this – again, can’t comment on the edition – I read it online in an eighteenth century collection.