Celestina (novel)
Encyclopedia
Celestina is an eighteenth-century
English
novel
and poet Charlotte Turner Smith
’s third novel. Published in 1791 by Thomas Cadell
, the novel tells the story of an adopted orphan
who discovers the secret of her parentage and marries the man she loves. It is a courtship
novel that follows the typical Cinderella
plot
while still commenting on contemporary political issues.
Celestina is a satire
of traditional English
class
and gender
assumptions, particularly the idea that nobility
is connected to rank or wealth. The heroine's worth lies in her "enlightened
human soul"; she is valuable in and of herself. As a model for young readers, Celestina was liberating—she was independent and assertive. While Celestina is a heroine of sensibility
who relies on her feelings to develop sympathy
for others, it is the hero, Willoughby, who is the most sentimental
of all, reversing the stereotypical
association of strong emotions with femininity
. In this novel, it is the women who remain strong and the men who are prey to their feelings.
Throughout the novel, Smith included portraits of herself and her husband. Readers were interested in her personal story and bought her works to discover what was happening in her life, therefore she included barely disguised autobiographical details in the novel.
The novel was well-received by reviewers and eventually ran to four editions during the 1790s; however, the novel was not published again until the 2000s. Jane Austen
, who read Smith's novels as they were published, responded to her description of sensibility with Sense and Sensibility
.
Celestina becomes friends with a servant named Jessy and helps reunite her with her lover, Cathcart, who is George Willoughby’s steward. Willoughby and Celestina discover that they love each other and decide to marry, despite the monetary impediments. Vavasour, Willoughby’s friend, also becomes enamored of Celestina; he flees before the wedding. Unfortunately, on the evening before the marriage, Willoughby suddenly takes off and it is unclear whether he will ever return – Celestina is devastated.
Celestina moves in with the Thorolds, the local rector and his family, after Willoughby abandons her. Their son, Montague, develops an ardent attachment for her and she decides to leave to escape his overtures. Believing that Willoughby will eventually marry Miss Fitz-Hayman, Vavasour becomes an importunate suitor of Celestina, along with Montague. She is harassed. Willoughby reveals in a letter that Lady Castlenorth suggested to him and Celestina and he are brother and sister and therefore cannot marry. He has therefore determined to go to France and discover the truth.
Celestina leaves the Thorods and tours Scotland with Mrs. Elphinstone, a relative of Cathcart and Jessy. Her life has been full of struggles. Her sister, Emily, became a “kept” woman and Mrs. Elphinstone was forced to accept money from her while she was poverty-stricken. Her husband dies in a tragic storm at sea while they are in Scotland. Montague pursues her Celestina to Scotland.
Celestina flees Scotland for London, establishing herself at Lady Horatia’s. Lady Horatia encourages her to marry someone other than Willoughby. Willoughby returns to London, but because of miscommunication and interference of other parties, both he and Celestina believe the other is no longer interested. Willoughby agrees to marry Miss Fitz-Hayman in order to save his family’s estate, but at the last minute he decides not to go through with it and she marries someone else. In the meantime, Montague and Vavasour duel over Celestina.
When Willougby travels to France to tell his uncle that he is no longer marrying Miss Fitz-Hayman, he discovers the secret of Celestina’s birth when he stays with some peasants. The two are now free to marry.
pattern in which a virtuous orphan highlights the depravity of the seemingly respectable characters. However, in the end, the orphan usually turns out to be wealthy and a legitimate member of the aristocracy
. Smith’s first three novels—Emmeline
(1788), Ethelinde (1789), and Celestina—follow this pattern but also contain unique elements; as Loraine Fletcher explains in her introduction to the Broadview Press
edition of Celestina, all three have “self-possessed, reflective heroines, conflicting family relationships, acerbic radical satire, acceptance that marriage is a woman’s goal but that great caution is necessary in achieving it, a more tolerant attitude to extramarital sex and the ‘fallen’ woman than is usually found in English novels of the 18th and 19th centuries, threatening castles emblematic of gender and national hierarchies, and contrasting locations including sublime mountains landscape.”
, her suffering as a mother, and the loss of her children, all parallel Smith’s own life. The heroine is widely read and a poet, signaling her connection with Smith. For Celestina, “literature is talismanic, her greatest help in times of trouble”, as it was for Smith. Celestina takes a trip to the Hebrides
where she writes poetry and watches her friend’s husband die in a shipwreck, mimicking an illustration Thomas Stothard
made for the fifth edition of the Sonnets. This section of the novel is particularly redolent with autobiographical references, with Benjamin Smith, Smith's husband, represented by Elphinstone, in a portrait that partially redeems him after his portrayal as Mr. Stafford in Emmeline. In her heroizing of the author figure, Smith was helping to create Romanticism
.
of the accepted “definition of nobility as inherited rank”; for example, Matilda Willoughby, who marries Molyneux for his title, is skewered. The only character content with his rank is Lord Castlenorth—and he is senile. In contrast, Smith writes of the heroine:
Instead of being ashamed of her illegitimacy, Celestina prides herself on her valuable mind and body. Relying on the new idea of Enlightenment
, found in the works of authors such as Rousseau and Voltaire
, Smith “asserts the value of the small individual life and its rights to the pursuit of happiness”. Celestina’s actions, as related by the narrator, are models for young readers—and they are liberating. She is “confident”, “socially assured”, “articulate”, and “decisive”. As Fletcher explains, “Smith’s feminine model is as independent as possible for an unmarried young woman in the middle or upper class who wished to remain socially acceptable.”
Within the first two volumes of the novel, there are two embedded narratives—the stories of Jessy and Sophy. Similar in tone and theme, these tales contain “family problems and bereavements, love, poverty and isolation”. These two narratives suggest that “the truth of feeling [is] the only valid and useful bond of society”. Jessy, Sophy, and Celestina are heroines of sensibility
—characters who feel strongly and are sympathetic to the emotions of others. Willoughby is a hero of sensibility, feeling more strongly than any of the female characters. Unusually in Celestina, it is the women who show more “fortitude”, while the men are often prey to their emotions. Yet it is only the characters capable of feeling true emotion who are moral; those who cannot feel or suffer are incapable of moral good.
Jane Austen
, who avidly read Smith's novels, responded to Celestina with Sense and Sensibility
(begun in the 1790s) and her own Willoughby. As a teenager Austen wrote parodies of heroes of sensibility, particularly those who focused on their own feelings and ignored their familial duties. Austen's novel parallels Smith's in its structure and setting: both are set primarily in Devon
shire and London
, for example, both have a heroine who writes an ill-advised letter to a lover. Fletcher notes that "the party scenes are so similar it is fair to assume that Austen initially intended a recognisable critique of Smith's [novel]". However, while Smith's Willoughby is exculpated from any wrongdoing, Austen's is not—her novel rejects the hero of sensibility, critiquing his "moodiness" and "abuse of hospitality".
was unfolding and begun five weeks after the storming of the Bastille
, the novel reveals the tyranny of the ancien regime through Celestina’s backstory. As the old aristocratic order is demolished in France, the expectation builds in the reader that such an occurrence needs to take place in England as well.
, who had previously published Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets, Emmeline, and Ethelinde. Cadell had become her friend and mentor, but he was averse to the radical
views expressed in her works and refused to publish her next two novels, Desmond
(1792) and The Old Manor House (1793). Celestina eventually ran to four English editions and a French translation, Celestine, ou la Victime des Préjugés, appeared in 1795. The novel was not published again in English until the Broadview Press edition of 2004.
Celestina was generally well received by reviewers, who praised its landscape descriptions. The reviewer for the European Magazine wrote that "if to delight the imagination by correct and brilliant descriptions of picturesque scenery, and to awaken the finest sympathies of the heart by well-formed representations of soft distress, be a test of excellence in novel-writing, the pen of Mrs. Smith unquestionably deserves the warmest praise." The reviewer for The Critical Review
praised her characterization and noted that some characters seemed to be drawn from real life.
18th century in literature
See also: 18th century in poetry, 17th century in literature, other events of the 18th century, 19th century in literature, list of years in literature.Literature of the 18th century refers to world literature produced during the 18th century....
English
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
and poet Charlotte Turner Smith
Charlotte Turner Smith
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....
’s third novel. Published in 1791 by Thomas Cadell
Thomas Cadell (publisher)
Thomas Cadell was a successful 18th-century English bookseller, who published works by some of the most famous writers of the century....
, the novel tells the story of an adopted orphan
Orphan
An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
who discovers the secret of her parentage and marries the man she loves. It is a courtship
Courtship
Courtship is the period in a couple's relationship which precedes their engagement and marriage, or establishment of an agreed relationship of a more enduring kind. In courtship, a couple get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement or other such agreement...
novel that follows the typical Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
plot
Marriage plot
Marriage plot is a term used, often in academic circles, to categorize a storyline that recurs in novels most prominently and more recently in films. Until the expansion of marriage rights to same-sex couples, this plot centered exclusively on the courtship rituals between a man and a woman and the...
while still commenting on contemporary political issues.
Celestina is a satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of traditional English
Social structure of Britain
The social structure of the United Kingdom has historically been highly influenced by the concept of social class, with the concept still affecting British society in the early-21st century. Although definitions of social class in the United Kingdom vary and are highly controversial, most are...
class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
and gender
Gender role
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...
assumptions, particularly the idea that nobility
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
is connected to rank or wealth. The heroine's worth lies in her "enlightened
Enlightenment (spiritual)
Enlightenment in a secular context often means the "full comprehension of a situation", but in spiritual terms the word alludes to a spiritual revelation or deep insight into the meaning and purpose of all things, communication with or understanding of the mind of God, profound spiritual...
human soul"; she is valuable in and of herself. As a model for young readers, Celestina was liberating—she was independent and assertive. While Celestina is a heroine of sensibility
Sensibility
Sensibility refers to an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something, such as the emotions of another. This concept emerged in eighteenth-century Britain, and was closely associated with studies of sense perception as the means through which knowledge is gathered...
who relies on her feelings to develop sympathy
Sympathy
Sympathy is a social affinity in which one person stands with another person, closely understanding his or her feelings. Also known as empathic concern, it is the feeling of compassion or concern for another, the wish to see them better off or happier. Although empathy and sympathy are often used...
for others, it is the hero, Willoughby, who is the most sentimental
Sentimentality
Sentimentality originally indicated the reliance on feelings as a guide to truth, but current usage defines it as an appeal to shallow, uncomplicated emotions at the expense of reason....
of all, reversing the stereotypical
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
association of strong emotions with femininity
Femininity
Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Though socially constructed, femininity is made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors...
. In this novel, it is the women who remain strong and the men who are prey to their feelings.
Throughout the novel, Smith included portraits of herself and her husband. Readers were interested in her personal story and bought her works to discover what was happening in her life, therefore she included barely disguised autobiographical details in the novel.
The novel was well-received by reviewers and eventually ran to four editions during the 1790s; however, the novel was not published again until the 2000s. Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
, who read Smith's novels as they were published, responded to her description of sensibility with Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility, published in 1811, is a British romance novel by Jane Austen, her first published work under the pseudonym, "A Lady." Jane Austen is considered a pioneer of the romance genre of novels, and for the realism portrayed in her novels, is one the most widely read writers in...
.
Plot summary
An orphaned Celestina is adopted from a convent in the south of France when she is a young girl by Mrs. Willoughby—nothing is known of her parentage. Celestina is raised along with Mrs. Willoughby’s own children, Matilda and George. The children grow up happily. Mrs. Willoughby dies early in the novel, urging George to marry her brother’s (Lord Castlenorth) daughter, Miss Fitz-Hayman, so that the family estate can be saved from financial ruin. Matilda marries Mr. Molyneux, becoming ambitious and haughty. She begins to despise Celestina and refuses her company.Celestina becomes friends with a servant named Jessy and helps reunite her with her lover, Cathcart, who is George Willoughby’s steward. Willoughby and Celestina discover that they love each other and decide to marry, despite the monetary impediments. Vavasour, Willoughby’s friend, also becomes enamored of Celestina; he flees before the wedding. Unfortunately, on the evening before the marriage, Willoughby suddenly takes off and it is unclear whether he will ever return – Celestina is devastated.
Celestina moves in with the Thorolds, the local rector and his family, after Willoughby abandons her. Their son, Montague, develops an ardent attachment for her and she decides to leave to escape his overtures. Believing that Willoughby will eventually marry Miss Fitz-Hayman, Vavasour becomes an importunate suitor of Celestina, along with Montague. She is harassed. Willoughby reveals in a letter that Lady Castlenorth suggested to him and Celestina and he are brother and sister and therefore cannot marry. He has therefore determined to go to France and discover the truth.
Celestina leaves the Thorods and tours Scotland with Mrs. Elphinstone, a relative of Cathcart and Jessy. Her life has been full of struggles. Her sister, Emily, became a “kept” woman and Mrs. Elphinstone was forced to accept money from her while she was poverty-stricken. Her husband dies in a tragic storm at sea while they are in Scotland. Montague pursues her Celestina to Scotland.
Celestina flees Scotland for London, establishing herself at Lady Horatia’s. Lady Horatia encourages her to marry someone other than Willoughby. Willoughby returns to London, but because of miscommunication and interference of other parties, both he and Celestina believe the other is no longer interested. Willoughby agrees to marry Miss Fitz-Hayman in order to save his family’s estate, but at the last minute he decides not to go through with it and she marries someone else. In the meantime, Montague and Vavasour duel over Celestina.
When Willougby travels to France to tell his uncle that he is no longer marrying Miss Fitz-Hayman, he discovers the secret of Celestina’s birth when he stays with some peasants. The two are now free to marry.
Genre and style
Courtship novel
Celestina is a “courtship novel”, “which centres on a young girl’s entrance into adult society and her choice among competing suitors”. During the 18th century, the courtship novel allowed authors to comment on a wide range of social topics, including economics, gender roles, and politics. Often these novels followed a CinderellaCinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
pattern in which a virtuous orphan highlights the depravity of the seemingly respectable characters. However, in the end, the orphan usually turns out to be wealthy and a legitimate member of the aristocracy
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
. Smith’s first three novels—Emmeline
Emmeline
Emmeline, The Orphan of the Castle is the first novel published by English writer Charlotte Turner Smith. A Cinderella story in which the heroine stands outside the traditional economic structures of English society and ends up wealthy and happy, the novel is a fantasy...
(1788), Ethelinde (1789), and Celestina—follow this pattern but also contain unique elements; as Loraine Fletcher explains in her introduction to the Broadview Press
Broadview Press
Broadview Press is an independent academic publisher that focuses on the humanities. Founded in 1985 by Don LePan, the company now employs over 25 people, has over 500 titles in print, and publishes approximately 50 titles each year...
edition of Celestina, all three have “self-possessed, reflective heroines, conflicting family relationships, acerbic radical satire, acceptance that marriage is a woman’s goal but that great caution is necessary in achieving it, a more tolerant attitude to extramarital sex and the ‘fallen’ woman than is usually found in English novels of the 18th and 19th centuries, threatening castles emblematic of gender and national hierarchies, and contrasting locations including sublime mountains landscape.”
Autobiography
Beginning with her Elegiac Sonnets in 1784, Smith included autobiographical material in her works, relaying “a saga of her own marital unhappiness, poverty and anxiety about her children”. Readers purchased her works partially because they wanted to hear the unfolding story of her life. The narratives of Jessy and Sophy contain references to Smith's own life that readers of the Sonnets would have recognized and to which reviewers alluded. For example, Sophy’s marriage to a merchant whose wealth was built on the slave tradeAtlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
, her suffering as a mother, and the loss of her children, all parallel Smith’s own life. The heroine is widely read and a poet, signaling her connection with Smith. For Celestina, “literature is talismanic, her greatest help in times of trouble”, as it was for Smith. Celestina takes a trip to the Hebrides
Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...
where she writes poetry and watches her friend’s husband die in a shipwreck, mimicking an illustration Thomas Stothard
Thomas Stothard
Thomas Stothard was an English painter, illustrator and engraver.-Life and work:Stothard was born in London, the son of a well-to-do innkeeper in Long Acre, London. A delicate child, he was sent at the age of five to a relative in Yorkshire, and attended school at Acomb, and afterwards at...
made for the fifth edition of the Sonnets. This section of the novel is particularly redolent with autobiographical references, with Benjamin Smith, Smith's husband, represented by Elphinstone, in a portrait that partially redeems him after his portrayal as Mr. Stafford in Emmeline. In her heroizing of the author figure, Smith was helping to create Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
.
Aristocracy and Enlightenment
Celestina is a satireSatire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of the accepted “definition of nobility as inherited rank”; for example, Matilda Willoughby, who marries Molyneux for his title, is skewered. The only character content with his rank is Lord Castlenorth—and he is senile. In contrast, Smith writes of the heroine:
Instead of being ashamed of her illegitimacy, Celestina prides herself on her valuable mind and body. Relying on the new idea of Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, found in the works of authors such as Rousseau and Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
, Smith “asserts the value of the small individual life and its rights to the pursuit of happiness”. Celestina’s actions, as related by the narrator, are models for young readers—and they are liberating. She is “confident”, “socially assured”, “articulate”, and “decisive”. As Fletcher explains, “Smith’s feminine model is as independent as possible for an unmarried young woman in the middle or upper class who wished to remain socially acceptable.”
Sensibility
Sensibility
Sensibility refers to an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something, such as the emotions of another. This concept emerged in eighteenth-century Britain, and was closely associated with studies of sense perception as the means through which knowledge is gathered...
—characters who feel strongly and are sympathetic to the emotions of others. Willoughby is a hero of sensibility, feeling more strongly than any of the female characters. Unusually in Celestina, it is the women who show more “fortitude”, while the men are often prey to their emotions. Yet it is only the characters capable of feeling true emotion who are moral; those who cannot feel or suffer are incapable of moral good.
Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
, who avidly read Smith's novels, responded to Celestina with Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility, published in 1811, is a British romance novel by Jane Austen, her first published work under the pseudonym, "A Lady." Jane Austen is considered a pioneer of the romance genre of novels, and for the realism portrayed in her novels, is one the most widely read writers in...
(begun in the 1790s) and her own Willoughby. As a teenager Austen wrote parodies of heroes of sensibility, particularly those who focused on their own feelings and ignored their familial duties. Austen's novel parallels Smith's in its structure and setting: both are set primarily in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
shire and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, for example, both have a heroine who writes an ill-advised letter to a lover. Fletcher notes that "the party scenes are so similar it is fair to assume that Austen initially intended a recognisable critique of Smith's [novel]". However, while Smith's Willoughby is exculpated from any wrongdoing, Austen's is not—her novel rejects the hero of sensibility, critiquing his "moodiness" and "abuse of hospitality".
Radicalism and the French Revolution
The last volume of the novel is decidedly political. Written as the Revolution ControversyRevolution Controversy
The Revolution Controversy was a British debate over the French Revolution, lasting from 1789 through 1795. A pamphlet war began in earnest after the publication of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France , which surprisingly supported the French aristocracy...
was unfolding and begun five weeks after the storming of the Bastille
Storming of the Bastille
The storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris on the morning of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. While the prison only contained seven inmates at the time of its storming, its fall was the flashpoint...
, the novel reveals the tyranny of the ancien regime through Celestina’s backstory. As the old aristocratic order is demolished in France, the expectation builds in the reader that such an occurrence needs to take place in England as well.
Publication and reception
Celestina was published in four volumes in 1791 by Thomas CadellThomas Cadell (publisher)
Thomas Cadell was a successful 18th-century English bookseller, who published works by some of the most famous writers of the century....
, who had previously published Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets, Emmeline, and Ethelinde. Cadell had become her friend and mentor, but he was averse to the radical
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
views expressed in her works and refused to publish her next two novels, Desmond
Desmond (novel)
Desmond is a novel by Charlotte Turner Smith. The novel focuses on politics during the French Revolution....
(1792) and The Old Manor House (1793). Celestina eventually ran to four English editions and a French translation, Celestine, ou la Victime des Préjugés, appeared in 1795. The novel was not published again in English until the Broadview Press edition of 2004.
Celestina was generally well received by reviewers, who praised its landscape descriptions. The reviewer for the European Magazine wrote that "if to delight the imagination by correct and brilliant descriptions of picturesque scenery, and to awaken the finest sympathies of the heart by well-formed representations of soft distress, be a test of excellence in novel-writing, the pen of Mrs. Smith unquestionably deserves the warmest praise." The reviewer for The Critical Review
The Critical Review
The Critical Review was first edited by Tobias Smollett from 1756 to 1763, and was contributed to by Samuel Johnson, David Hume, John Hunter, and Oliver Goldsmith, until 1817....
praised her characterization and noted that some characters seemed to be drawn from real life.