| This blog explores social attitudes in Jane Austen's time, discusses her novels, reviews forgotten 18th century novels, and throws some occasional shade at the modern academy. The introductory post is here. My "six simple questions for academics" post is here. Spoilers abound in my discussion of these forgotten novels, and I discuss 18th-century attitudes which I do not necessarily endorse. |
CMP#218 Sentimentalism vs Romance; two genres, two generations
We could say that Laetitia Matilda Hawkins has no one but herself to blame if her novels and essays were erroneously attributed to Eliza Kirkham Mathews. She published anonymously. Her novel Constance (1785) was advertised as “the first literary attempt of a young lady.” Her subsequent collection of essays, titled Pharos (a reference to lighthouses), was advertised as being by the author of Constance, and so on.
Eliza Kirkham Mathews, by contrast, wanted to put her name on the title page of her novel What Has Been (1801). She had published her first collection of poems under her maiden name of Eliza Kirkham Strong, but when it came to her novel, her brother-in-law advised her against it. He seems to have had doubts about whether the novel would do well and therefore, the safer thing to do would be to publish anonymously. If the book sold well, she could always claim authorship later. However, we know that EKM did in fact write What Has Been even though her name is not on the title page because (1) the publication of the novel is documented in her husband's biography, (2) it contains poems which had previously been published under her (maiden) name, and (3) she drew on her own life for the plot.
But since EKM is still being listed as the author for Constance-- a book published when she was 13 years old, we might as well build an objective case for showing why these books were written by two different hands. For this task, I enlisted the help of Artificial Intelligence to study the sentence patterns and grammar. However, I have read both of these novels and am not relying on AI for my conclusions.
Eliza Kirkham Mathews, by contrast, wanted to put her name on the title page of her novel What Has Been (1801). She had published her first collection of poems under her maiden name of Eliza Kirkham Strong, but when it came to her novel, her brother-in-law advised her against it. He seems to have had doubts about whether the novel would do well and therefore, the safer thing to do would be to publish anonymously. If the book sold well, she could always claim authorship later. However, we know that EKM did in fact write What Has Been even though her name is not on the title page because (1) the publication of the novel is documented in her husband's biography, (2) it contains poems which had previously been published under her (maiden) name, and (3) she drew on her own life for the plot.
But since EKM is still being listed as the author for Constance-- a book published when she was 13 years old, we might as well build an objective case for showing why these books were written by two different hands. For this task, I enlisted the help of Artificial Intelligence to study the sentence patterns and grammar. However, I have read both of these novels and am not relying on AI for my conclusions.
Although....
it's not so easy to tell Authoress "A" apart from Authoress "B" when everybody was writing to the same rigid template and many were using the same "thorough novel slang," as Austen put it. Both Constance and What Has Been are marriage-plot novels. They revolve around the trials and tribulations of a heroine who must fight to preserve her honour after losing her parents and her inheritance. They both stress morality and Christian fortitude. However, one can look for differences in tone and style, something to give us an idea of the "fingerprint" of the author. I confess I lack the high-level grammar skills to define exactly why one writer's habitual sentence patterns are different from another. That's where AI comes in handy. Constance features the long cascading sentences of the Georgian era. ChatGPT explained to me that coordination of clauses using conjunctions like "and," "but," "for" is called parataxis.
In this single sentence, the author explains what happens after Constance’s childhood sweetheart Lord Reycolm has fallen in love with another woman. Constance graciously lets him off the hook. They both seek the permission of their respective parents to drop the engagement:
it's not so easy to tell Authoress "A" apart from Authoress "B" when everybody was writing to the same rigid template and many were using the same "thorough novel slang," as Austen put it. Both Constance and What Has Been are marriage-plot novels. They revolve around the trials and tribulations of a heroine who must fight to preserve her honour after losing her parents and her inheritance. They both stress morality and Christian fortitude. However, one can look for differences in tone and style, something to give us an idea of the "fingerprint" of the author. I confess I lack the high-level grammar skills to define exactly why one writer's habitual sentence patterns are different from another. That's where AI comes in handy. Constance features the long cascading sentences of the Georgian era. ChatGPT explained to me that coordination of clauses using conjunctions like "and," "but," "for" is called parataxis.
In this single sentence, the author explains what happens after Constance’s childhood sweetheart Lord Reycolm has fallen in love with another woman. Constance graciously lets him off the hook. They both seek the permission of their respective parents to drop the engagement:
 The Harmony of Courtship, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale Lord Reycolm performed his promise of writing as soon as he knew his father’s sentiments, and to the infinite joy of all interested for him, they learnt that Lord Drumferne’s conduct had been such as his son wished; he professed himself very ready to accept of the substitution of [one fiancée for another], provided it was, as Lord Reycolm represented it, with Constance’s voluntary concurrence; the pleasure which this event gave [the new fiancée] Adelaide was greater than her friend had expected, she received the intelligence with appearance of joy, and could not conceal her anxiety left Sir Edward Fitzarthur’s disposition to acquiescence should be less than Lord Drumferne’s; but this, Constance, who had written to her father, assured her she had no reason to fear, she had stated to him how much he would oblige her by discharging Lord Reycolm from his engagement, and from his well-known inclination to indulge her, she ventured to become responsible for his compliance. |
In What Has Been, on the other hand, sentence structure tends toward overloaded subordination. This means EKM embeds information within sentences using more cumbersome parenthetical structures, sometimes nesting clauses inside one another.
| “Mrs. Elton, when she could detach herself from the interesting prattle of her morning visitors, or the no less interesting party which formed her card-table, sometimes condescended to visit her poor sister, Mrs. Hammond—a very favourite expression of Mrs. Elton’s: and though she would sometimes assure her particular friends she did all in her power to assist Mrs. Hammond, yet she had undoubtedly been an imprudent woman’ and as she could not make the appearance which ladies, who visited at her house, usually did, why she declined asking her or Dorothea (who, to confess the truth, she considered as a very consequential disagreeable girl), out of delicacy to their feelings. |
ChatGPT opined that the narrative voice maintains a consistent and fluid past tense in Constance, using the past perfect only when needed to clarify chronology.
In What Has Been, there is greater reliance on the past perfect tense ("had been," "had done," "had seen") even in moments when simple past would suffice: “Emily had one day seated herself on the bed which had late contained the departed Matilda; her arm rested on the pillow which once supported her sister; tender remembrances crowded on her fancy, and the fortitude she had hitherto supported, now yielded to sorrow."
Constance’s narrator uses parallelism; for example, at the end of this sentence: Constance… determined to tell Lady Barbara of every thing… which though she expected her mother would condemn, she hoped she would pity. In this passage, Constance wants her father to rescind his approval of Lord Farnford's relentless courtship of her: “she concluded with begging that his importunity might be stopped by the same authority which had permitted it."
This Johnsonian style stamps the author of Constance as being of an earlier generation than EKM.
In What Has Been, there is greater reliance on the past perfect tense ("had been," "had done," "had seen") even in moments when simple past would suffice: “Emily had one day seated herself on the bed which had late contained the departed Matilda; her arm rested on the pillow which once supported her sister; tender remembrances crowded on her fancy, and the fortitude she had hitherto supported, now yielded to sorrow."
Constance’s narrator uses parallelism; for example, at the end of this sentence: Constance… determined to tell Lady Barbara of every thing… which though she expected her mother would condemn, she hoped she would pity. In this passage, Constance wants her father to rescind his approval of Lord Farnford's relentless courtship of her: “she concluded with begging that his importunity might be stopped by the same authority which had permitted it."
This Johnsonian style stamps the author of Constance as being of an earlier generation than EKM.
Emma Hamilton as "Sensibility," by George Romney What Has Been relies on metaphorical novel-cliches like "the sun of prosperity," "the balm of comfort, and "the tear of pity." EKM occasionally gives us something like Free Indirect Style, as in this bitter passage when the opinions of the off-stage characters infuse the narration: [Emily’s] rich relations had not even offered her a transient asylum; they talked of industry and its blessings—how many earned a comfortable maintenance by their needle; and all agreed that, as poor relations are very disagreeable people, Emily had better remove from Devonshire.
As for the overall tone, What Has Been has some garrulous servants but few if any light-hearted moments. In this passage from Constance, the real love interest, Lord Calhorne, has dropped in to breakfast to catch Constance alone, and pressed her for a response to his letter proposing marriage. “Constance, distressed beyond imagination, coloured like scarlet; she tasted her tea, she sweetened it, filled it up with water, and poured cream into it till it ran over, before she could get courage to articulate a word.—I am afraid, said Lord Calorne, in a tone of raillery, I have spoiled your dish of tea—do not sweeten it any more; but tell me whether you have found the five minutes leisure I asked for my letter.--
Sensibility
Constance does not fly into ecstasies over the natural world. On the other hand, both Emily and her love interest Frederick are devotees of the romantic cult of sensibility à la Marianne Dashwood: “the enchanting scenery around them drew from Frederick the language of a heart which could not view the beauties of Nature without feeling the rapturous enthusiasm it inspires in minds unvitiated by the false pleasures and refinements of the world."
Here we are told Constance is sad at parting from her parents, but the emotions are more restrained: “[S]he prepared to quit her native home with alacrity; but she was soon convinced that the most supreme felicity of this world is alloyed, for at the moment of taking leave, she would have relinquished all the prospect [of good times in London] to have been spared the pain attending separation: with many exhortations and blessings from her father and mother she got into the chaise: the distance was forty-two miles, and she arrived at the place of her destination about four in the afternoon.”
I’m sure Emily would never have arrived anywhere at four in the afternoon. She would have arrived just as the setting sun with its last gilded rays had been empurpling the sky, or something like that.
In conclusion, the “voice” of Constance and the “voice” of What Has Been are recognizably different. Which one, in your opinion, sounds more like Austen?
As for the overall tone, What Has Been has some garrulous servants but few if any light-hearted moments. In this passage from Constance, the real love interest, Lord Calhorne, has dropped in to breakfast to catch Constance alone, and pressed her for a response to his letter proposing marriage. “Constance, distressed beyond imagination, coloured like scarlet; she tasted her tea, she sweetened it, filled it up with water, and poured cream into it till it ran over, before she could get courage to articulate a word.—I am afraid, said Lord Calorne, in a tone of raillery, I have spoiled your dish of tea—do not sweeten it any more; but tell me whether you have found the five minutes leisure I asked for my letter.--
Sensibility
Constance does not fly into ecstasies over the natural world. On the other hand, both Emily and her love interest Frederick are devotees of the romantic cult of sensibility à la Marianne Dashwood: “the enchanting scenery around them drew from Frederick the language of a heart which could not view the beauties of Nature without feeling the rapturous enthusiasm it inspires in minds unvitiated by the false pleasures and refinements of the world."
Here we are told Constance is sad at parting from her parents, but the emotions are more restrained: “[S]he prepared to quit her native home with alacrity; but she was soon convinced that the most supreme felicity of this world is alloyed, for at the moment of taking leave, she would have relinquished all the prospect [of good times in London] to have been spared the pain attending separation: with many exhortations and blessings from her father and mother she got into the chaise: the distance was forty-two miles, and she arrived at the place of her destination about four in the afternoon.”
I’m sure Emily would never have arrived anywhere at four in the afternoon. She would have arrived just as the setting sun with its last gilded rays had been empurpling the sky, or something like that.
In conclusion, the “voice” of Constance and the “voice” of What Has Been are recognizably different. Which one, in your opinion, sounds more like Austen?
Realistic title, anonymous author
ChatGPT concluded that Constance is a sentimental Georgian novel, while What Has Been is an early example of domestic realism influenced by the rising wave of Romanticism. It is more emotional, more introspective. I agree. The title, What Has Been, signifies to the reader that the book dwells on experiences that might be encountered (and criticized) in real life, not in a fanciful Gothic story. Other novels of this type announced themselves with titles such as: Ellinor, or, the World as It Is, or Friends Unmasked, or, Scenes in Real Life; or Sketches of modern life, or, man as he ought not to be. The villains in these novels do not throw heroines in dungeons, but they exhibit modern traits of greed, heartlessness, and vanity.
Eliza’s husband Charles didn’t care for the title. When the manuscript of What Has Been was in the hands of the printers at Minerva Press in London, he wrote to his best friend: “I have delayed saying anything about the novel, and am now writing to you in a hurry; if you have, therefore, leisure to make any alterations, or improvements in the following title, I will be obliged –“What has been.” I find it so lame, and I am so unused to anything of that sort, that I will think you to write something in its stead.”
ChatGPT concluded that Constance is a sentimental Georgian novel, while What Has Been is an early example of domestic realism influenced by the rising wave of Romanticism. It is more emotional, more introspective. I agree. The title, What Has Been, signifies to the reader that the book dwells on experiences that might be encountered (and criticized) in real life, not in a fanciful Gothic story. Other novels of this type announced themselves with titles such as: Ellinor, or, the World as It Is, or Friends Unmasked, or, Scenes in Real Life; or Sketches of modern life, or, man as he ought not to be. The villains in these novels do not throw heroines in dungeons, but they exhibit modern traits of greed, heartlessness, and vanity.
Eliza’s husband Charles didn’t care for the title. When the manuscript of What Has Been was in the hands of the printers at Minerva Press in London, he wrote to his best friend: “I have delayed saying anything about the novel, and am now writing to you in a hurry; if you have, therefore, leisure to make any alterations, or improvements in the following title, I will be obliged –“What has been.” I find it so lame, and I am so unused to anything of that sort, that I will think you to write something in its stead.”
Whatever his reservations about his wife's prose and poetry, it appears that Charles followed through with the books that Eliza had in progress. The same year she died, a local publisher in York brought out some children's books under her name. Charles published a posthumous book of her poetry, and five years after her death, a novel bearing her name, Griffith Abbey, or, Memoirs of Eugenia, was published. However, when I say "her name," the name was "Mrs. C. Mathews," which has led to confusion around whether the book was written by Charles's first (EKM) or second wife (Anne Jackson), or another authoress named Mathews. We'll introduce Griffith Abbey in the next post.
Fergus, Jan. “Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins’s Anonymous Novels Identified.” Notes and Queries, vol. 54, no. 2, 2007, pp. 152–56, https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjm072.
Fergus, Jan. “Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins’s Anonymous Novels Identified.” Notes and Queries, vol. 54, no. 2, 2007, pp. 152–56, https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjm072.
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