Table Of ContentReading Jane Austen After
Reading Charlotte Smith
Reading Jane Austen After Reading Charlotte Smith
Jacqueline M. Labbe
Reading Jane Austen
After Reading
Charlotte Smith
Jacqueline M. Labbe
De Montfort University
Leicester, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-38828-7 ISBN 978-3-030-38829-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38829-4
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This book is dedicated to Sean, Indie and Nathan; and to the scholarly
community from whom I have learned so much.
Preface
This book is a provocation and a thought experiment. It creates a
Smith/Austen bubble, mostly ignoring other life. It asks ‘what if?’ What
if we read Jane Austen after reading Charlotte Smith? What if we accept
that Smith held a prominence for Austen that had a deep, essential im-
pact? What if we view the two as players on the same stage, occupying
the same spotlight? What if we see them as engaged in a kind of conver-
sation—speaking with each other—abiding together, as the etymology of
‘conversation’ suggests?
Several of its ideas have been aired over many years at conferences and
some elements have appeared in print. I am grateful to and acknowledge
the following:
(cid:129) Earlier versions of parts of Chapter 3 appeared as ‘What Happens
at the Party: Jane Austen Converses with Charlotte Smith’ (Persua-
sions Online 30.2 [2010], http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-
line/vol30no2/labbe.html); and as ‘Narrating Seduction: Charlotte
SmithandJaneAusten’.CharlotteSmithinBritishRomanticism.Ed.
Labbe. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2008, p 113–128.
(cid:129) An earlier version of part of Chapter 4 appeared as ‘Pathological
Sensibility’ (Women’s Writing 23.3 [2016], Eds. Ros Ballaster and
Ruth Perry: 354–65).
vii
viii PREFACE
I have benefitted from the thoughtful responses of colleagues as I have
refined my ideas—thank you to colleagues who are too numerous to be
named. However, there are always exceptions, and I must acknowledge
my deep gratitude to Harriet Kramer Linkin, Sharon Ruston, and Fiona
Price, all of whom read parts or all of this book in draft. Their com-
mentsandsuggestionshavemadethisbookbetteranddemonstrated,yet
again, the intellectual vigour and amazing generosity of the Romanticist
community.
IwouldalsoliketothankAmarDaxini,whosecarefuleyeensuredthat
my citations and references are in order. Any errors that remain are my
own.
Finally,andalways:tomyfamily,distantandnearby,andtomypartner
Sean, thank you for listening to me talk about Smith!
Coventry, UK Jacqueline M. Labbe
2020
Primary Sources
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Austen, Jane. 1975. Sanditon. New York: Simon and Schuster.
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Smith,Charlotte.1794.TheWanderingsofWarwick.London:Printedfor
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Scene: The Cliffs of the South Downs
Thoughts:Onsuddenaccident,versionsofpain,andthefortuitousavail-
ability of houses
Hardly, however, had they unbuckled one part of the harness before a
tremendous burst of thunder broke immediately above them—… the horses
instantly reared … and ran with the curricle along the worn chalk way
….Theterrifiedyoungwoman…foundherselfonabankofturf,suffering
extremepain,andsupportedbyastranger,whoseeingherrestoredtosense…
told her, that he had been fortunate enough to stop the horses at the moment
when another step would have plunged them and the carriage into a chalk
pit …. He added, that he had sent his servants to his house, which was not
faroff,forassistance….[T]hat[herarm]wasbrokencouldnotbedoubted
…. [T]hey reached an house at the foot of the hill …. She was attended to a
chamber, and put to bed…
Chapter 1, The Young Philosopher, 1798
PRIMARY SOURCES xi
A gentleman and a lady travelling from Tunbridge towards … the Sussex
coast … being induced by business to quit the high road and attempt a very
rough lane, were overturned in toiling up its long ascent, half rock, half
sand. The accident happened just beyond the only gentleman’s house near
the lane …. The severity of the fall was broken by their slow pace and the
narrowness of the lane …. [b]ut the gentleman … sprained his foot …. Mr.
Heywood … entreat[ed] them not to think of proceeding till the ankle had
beenexaminedandsomerefreshmenttaken,andverycordiallypressingthem
to make use of his house for both purposes.
Chapter 1, Sanditon, 1817
