The Old Manor House - Paperback

by Charlotte Smith (Author), Jacqueline M. Labbe (Editor)

"Jacqueline Labbe's new edition creates a valuable array of supplementary documents for reading the subtle politics of this novel and its negotiations with the terms of fictional romance." -- Theresa M. Kelley, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Back Jacket

In The Old Manor House (1794), Charlotte Smith combines elements of the romance, the Gothic, recent history, and culture to produce both a social document and a compelling novel. A "property romance," the love story of Orlando and Monimia revolves around the Manor House as inheritable property. In situating their romance as dependent on the whims of property owners, Smith critiques a society in love with money at the expense of its most vulnerable members, the dispossessed.

Appendices in this edition include: contemporary responses; writings on the genre debate by Anna Letitia Barbauld, John Moore, and Walter Scott; and historical documents focusing on property laws as well as the American and French revolutions.

Author Biography

Jacqueline M. Labbe is a Reader in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. She is the author of The Romantic Paradox: Love, Violence, and the Uses of Romance, 1760-1830 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000).