Anna Seward And The End Of The Eighteenth Century

A critical study of the prominent British poet’s work. Anna Seward and her career defy easy placement into the traditional periods of British literature. Raised to emulate the great poets John Milton and Alexander Pope, maturing in the Age of Sensibility, and publishing during the early Romantic era, Seward exemplifies the eighteenth-century transition from classical to Romantic. Claudia Thomas Kairoff’s excellent critical study offers fresh readings of Anna Seward's most important writings and firmly establishes the poet as a pivotal figure among late-century British writers. Reading Seward’s writing alongside recent scholarship on gendered conceptions of the poetic career, patriotism, provincial culture, sensibility, and the sonnet revival, Kairoff carefully reconsiders Seward's poetry and critical prose. Written as it was in the last decades of the eighteenth century, Seward’s work does not comfortably fit into the dominant models of Enlightenment-era verse or the tropes that characterize Romantic poetry. Rather than seeing this as an obstacle for understanding Seward’s writing within a particular literary style, Kairoff argues that this allows readers to see in Seward's works the eighteenth-century roots of Romantic-era poetry. Arguably the most prominent woman poet of her lifetime, Seward’s writings disappeared from popular and scholarly view shortly after her death. After nearly two hundred years of critical neglect, Seward is attracting renewed attention, and with this book Kairoff makes a strong and convincing case for including Anna Seward’s remarkable literary achievements among the most important of the late eighteenth century. “Professor Kairoff achieves her goal of providing “fresh readings, in a richer context,” which will go a long way toward reestablishing Seward’s importance. The book is a significant contribution to literary scholarship and will be widely read, cited, and admired.” —Paula R. Feldman “This lucid, stimulating study will challenge traditional notions not only of Seward but also of the interstice of Romanticism and late-century women authors.” —Choice “Kairoff effectively demonstrates the quality of Seward’s work, and articulates some of the ways in which a reappraisal of Seward might enrich our understanding of both eighteenth-century and Romantic-era literary cultures, and our conception of the writing practices of both male and female authors.” —Years Work in English Studies

Anna Seward and her career defy easy placement into the traditional periods of British literature. Raised to emulate the great poets John Milton and Alexander Pope, maturing in the Age of Sensibility, and publishing during the early Romantic era, Seward exemplifies the eighteenth-century transition from classical to Romantic. Claudia Thomas Kairoff's excellent critical study offers fresh readings of Anna Seward's most important writings and firmly establishes the poet as a pivotal figure among late-century British writers. Reading Seward's writing alongside recent scholarship on gendered conceptions of the poetic career, patriotism, provincial culture, sensibility, and the sonnet revival, Kairoff carefully reconsiders Seward's poetry and critical prose. Written as it was in the last decades of the eighteenth century, Seward's work does not comfortably fit into the dominant models of Enlightenment-era verse or the tropes that characterize Romantic poetry. Rather than seeing this as an obstacle for understanding Seward's writing within a particular literary style, Kairoff argues that this allows readers to see in Seward's works the eighteenth-century roots of Romantic-era poetry. Arguably the most prominent woman poet of her lifetime, Seward's writings disappeared from popular and scholarly view shortly after her death. After nearly two hundred years of critical neglect, Seward is attracting renewed attention, and with this book Kairoff makes a strong and convincing case for including Anna Seward's remarkable literary achievements among the most important of the late eighteenth century.

Anna Seward and her career defy easy placement into the traditional periods of British literature. Raised to emulate the great poets John Milton and Alexander Pope, maturing in the Age of Sensibility, and publishing during the early Romantic era, Seward exemplifies the eighteenth-century transition from classical to Romantic. Claudia Thomas Kairoff's excellent critical study offers fresh readings of Anna Seward's most important writings and firmly establishes the poet as a pivotal figure among late-century British writers. Reading Seward's writing alongside recent scholarship on gendered conceptions of the poetic career, patriotism, provincial culture, sensibility, and the sonnet revival, Kairoff carefully reconsiders Seward's poetry and critical prose. Written as it was in the last decades of the eighteenth century, Seward's work does not comfortably fit into the dominant models of Enlightenment-era verse or the tropes that characterize Romantic poetry. Rather than seeing this as an obstacle for understanding Seward's writing within a particular literary style, Kairoff argues that this allows readers to see in Seward's works the eighteenth-century roots of Romantic-era poetry. Arguably the most prominent woman poet of her lifetime, Seward's writings disappeared from popular and scholarly view shortly after her death. After nearly two hundred years of critical neglect, Seward is attracting renewed attention, and with this book Kairoff makes a strong and convincing case for including Anna Seward's remarkable literary achievements among the most important of the late eighteenth century. -- Paula R. Feldman, editor of British Women Poets of the Romantic Era

Anna Seward, eighteenth-century poet, biographer, and letter-writer, wrote her juvenile journal in the form of a series of letters to an imaginary friend, “Emma”. Seward intended the letters as an autobiographical account of the period of her youth before she achieved fame as a published poet. Towards the end of her life, she collated her works for posthumous publication, bequeathing the manuscripts to Walter Scott. However, as Scott disliked much of the anecdotal substance of the juvenile letters, he censored them, removing over half of the contents before publication. This volume restores the journal to its original format, making the case for Seward’s importance as a social and cultural commentator. The letters discuss topical events and private concerns, illuminating not only Seward’s life, but also giving fascinating insights into the manners and mores of mid-eighteenth-century provincial life in England. Also included in this volume is a portfolio of four Anglican sermons written by Seward and delivered by unsuspecting clergymen. These were also excised by Scott who agreed with Seward’s family that they were too controversial to publish as their author was a woman. The sermons provide retrospective evidence of Seward’s efforts to contribute to feminist Enlightenment debate. Introducing them into the public domain now gives us an understanding of women’s unacknowledged achievements and also of their silencing.

The eighteenth-century salon played an important role in shaping literary culture, while both creating and sustaining transnational intellectual networks. Focusing on archival materials, this book is the first detailed examination of the literary salon in Ireland, considered in the wider contexts of contemporary salon culture in Britain and France.

This critical edition of the poems of Anna Seward (1742-1809) re-establishes one of the most popular and prolific poets of the early Romantic period. Her work influenced Charllotte Smith and Mary Robinson and later both Wordsworth and Coleridge. Her reputation was so high that Sir Walter Scott edited the posthumous edition of her poems in 1810. Unlike Scott's, this edition reproduces the poems as they were first published in periodicals and collections during Seward's lifetime, allowing scholars to experience them as eighteenth century readers did. It also includes mire than 200 poems that were excluded from the Scott edition.

This critical edition of the poems of Anna Seward (1742-1809) re-establishes one of the most popular and prolific poets of the early Romantic period. Her work influenced Charllotte Smith and Mary Robinson and later both Wordsworth and Coleridge. Her reputation was so high that Sir Walter Scott edited the posthumous edition of her poems in 1810. Unlike Scott's, this edition reproduces the poems as they were first published in periodicals and collections during Seward's lifetime, allowing scholars to experience them as eighteenth century readers did. It also includes mire than 200 poems that were excluded from the Scott edition.

Featuring cutting-edge essays by leading scholars, this collection formulates a new feminist theory of eighteenth-century women's satire.