First edition of this courtship novel by a favorite author of the young Jane Austen, cited by modern scholars as an influence upon the plot and characters of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.
Fine.
Price: $4,000.00
"In the modern school of novel writers, Mrs Smith holds a very distinguished rank; and, if not first, she is so near as scarcely to be styled an inferior." — Contemporary review of CELESTINA
Smith wrote novels under economic duress, supporting her children by publishing after separating from her husband. As she wrote of selling the copyright to her novel CELESTINA (1791), "it is my poverty and not my will that has forced me to do it." Nevertheless, her works were heavily read and appreciated in her era, when Jane Austen was growing up. Jacqueline M. Labbe has described Charlotte Smith as "pivotal in Austen's development as a writer." In fact, Austen was reading Smith's novels in her teens. Austen's characters discuss "Mrs. Smith's novels" in her unfinished novel from when she was sixteen, CATHARINE, OR THE BOWER (1792) "I am quite delighted with them," one character notes. Of CELESTINA, Margaret Doody notes that its hero—George Willoughby—may have been among the inspirations for John Willoughby in Austen's first novel, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1811).
Read more: Doody, Jane Austen's Names; Labbe, Reading Jane Austen after Reading Charlotte Smith.
London: Printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1791. Four 12mo volmes, 6.75'' x 4'' each. Contemporary full speckled calf, gilt rules, gilt-stamped spines, red and navy goatskin spine labels. [4], 273, [1]; [4], 313, [1]; [4], 303, [1]; [4], 353, [3] pages. Engraved bookplate of Althorp House to front pastedowns. Only light rubbing to boards.
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