Published here for the first time in a modern edition, Charlotte Smith�s third novel is both rivetingly plotted and unique for its time in its powerful depiction of a gifted Romantic woman poet. The novel�s heroine, Celestina, abandoned as a child in a French convent, becomes an independent, witty, and accomplished elegiac poet who, in a reversal of the usual pattern of the courtship novel, acts as a mentor to several men in her life. Written at the beginning of the French Revolution, Smith�s novel depicts characters challenging both corrupt authority and conventional morality, exemplifying her hope that English society was on the verge of a great change for the better. This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and primary source material relating to the novel�s reception, its political contexts (writings by Reverend Richard Price, Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Thomas Paine), and the author�s life.
(less)Published here for the first time in a modern edition, Charlotte Smith�s third novel is both rivetingly plotted and unique for its time in its powerful depiction of a gifted Romantic woman poet. The novel�s heroine, Celestina, abandoned
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Celestina | 
