The early novels of Charlotte Smith (1749-1806) were precursors of the gothic fiction that came to dominate the Romantic period. This text, one of her later novels, is more political in nature and influenced the form and substance of works by Austen and Dickens.
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.