Charlotte Smith - women writers to put back on the bookshelf

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2020

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New Generation Thinker Sophie Coulombeau argues that we should salute this woman who supported her family through her writing, who perfected sonnets about solitude before Wordsworth began writing his, and who explored the struggles of women and refugees in her fiction. Mother to 12 children, Charlotte Turner Smith wrote ten novels, three poetry collections and four children's books and translated French fiction. In 1788 her first novel, Emmeline, sold 1500 copies within months but by the time of her death in 1803 her popularity had declined and she had become destitute.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to work with academics to turn their research into radio.

Producer: Robyn Read

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:33.2	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:36.9	Hello, I'm Claire Walker Gore.
0:39.1	Thanks for downloading this episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast,
0:42.6	which is part of a short series looking at women writers to put back on the bookshelves.
0:47.7	Sophie Coulomba is a new generation thinker on a scheme run by the BBC
0:51.7	and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to turn academic research into radio programmes.
0:57.5	She studies the 18th century at the University of York
1:00.0	and her essay looks at the example set by Charlotte Smith.
1:03.8	This year, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the poet William Wordsworth's birth.
1:10.2	But how many people will spare a thought for
1:12.4	the trailblazing woman who inspired him? Charlotte Smith perfected sonnets and blank verse about
1:18.8	solitude and the wonders of nature long before Wordsworth did. And a decade or so before
1:25.3	William wondered lonely as a cloud, he was reading her poetry and even begging an audience.
1:32.3	After her death, perhaps uneasy at the thought of how much he owed her, he'd remember her as,
1:39.2	A lady to whom English verse is under greater obligations than are likely to be either acknowledged or remembered.
1:48.5	Wordsworth's gloomy prophecy has come to pass. Though she was one of the most prolific,
1:53.7	versatile and successful authors of her time, the name Charlotte Smith now means very little to
1:59.9	most people. Her poetry rings few bells.
2:04.0	Her novels, which influenced Walter Scott and Jane Austen, go largely unread. Though she wrote
	...

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