The Works of Charlotte Smith, Part I Vol 1

Stuart Curran

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000749236
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Languages

Reveals the extent to which Charlotte Turner Smith's work constitutes as significant an achievement as her poetry, representing the turbulent decade of the 1790s on its social and political, as well as literary, planes with an unparalleled richness of detail and an unblinkered vision.

THE ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE

Smith adapted The Romance of Real Life from two distinct French compilations of legal cases bearing the same name: François Gayot de Pitaval’s Causes Célèbres et Interessants [Celebrated and Interesting Cases] (1735–44); and François Richer’s later version (1772–88), which contains many of the same cases. She is not the only writer to repackage Pitaval and Richer for readers of fiction; both the Marquis de Sade and Alexandre Dumas adapted specific cases from the Causes Célèbres during the nineteenth century. Smith’s version shows her engaging in freer and more complex acts of adaptation than she did in Manon L’Escaut. Here the acts of translation are not only linguistic but also generic, and much of the work’s interest derives from its success in transforming a legal genre (case history) into a narrative one (romantic fiction). Smith effectively transforms these essentially masculinist sources, furthermore, by choosing cases that focus on the legal system’s victimization of women.

The Romance of Real Life was published in three volumes by Thomas Cadell of London in 1787. It was a critical success, receiving favourable notices from the Monthly Review, Critical Review and Town and Country Magazine. Reviewers universally praised its use of factual materials as a vehicle for edifying its readers. Although the work sold well and brought Smith a profit of £330, no authorized second edition appeared during Smith’s lifetime. Pirated editions appeared in Dublin (1787), Philadelphia (1799) and Baltimore (1799), and a German translation of the work was published in Leipzig in 1789. After Smith’s death, a subsequent edition of The Romance of Real Life was published in 1847 in Aberdeen and Ipswich.

THE
ROMANCE
OF
REAL LIFE.

BY CHARLOTTE SMITH.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, IN THE STRAND.

M.DCC.LXXXVII.

PREFACE.

A Literary friend,¹ whose opinion I greatly value, suggested to me the possibility of producing a few little volumes, that might prove as attractive as the most romantic fiction, and yet convey all the solid instruction of genuine history. He affirmed, that the voluminous and ill-written French work, entitled Les Causes Célébres, might furnish me with very ample materials for so desirable a purpose. He advised me to select such stories from this collection, as, though disfigured by the affectation and bad taste of the compiler, Guyot de Pitaval,² might lead us to form awful ideas of the force and danger of the human passions. He wished me to consider myself as under no restriction, but that of adhering to authenticated facts; and, by telling each story in my own way, to render it as much as possible an interesting lesson of morality.

This hint appeared to me so captivating, that I began the attempt suggested with great pleasure; but soon became sensible of many difficulties I had to encounter. The style of the original is frequently obscure; the facts are often anticipated, and often repeated, in almost the same words, in different parts of the story: they are also often interrupted by remarks, or by relations wholly foreign to the subject, by which the attention is bewildered and the interest weakened. I found, indeed, so many minute and unnecessary details, and so much improper and ridiculous description, intermixed with the most pathetic events, that I was sometimes on the point of relinquishing my undertaking.

Yet it occurred to me, that the reason which made the work difficult and unpleasant for me to write, would render it, when finished, a desirable book to those who may wish to obtain some idea of a celebrated publication, without wading thro’ the obscurities and extraneous matter of M. de Pitaval.

In the course of my work, I met with a new edition of my original, by M. Richer.³ This gentleman tells his reader, that he has elucidated the difficulties and obscurities of his predecessor; and I hoped to receive great assistance from his labours: but I cannot say the production of M. Richer entirely answers the promises of his preface. The style is certainly clearer, and the narrative more distinct, but it is also less interesting; and in some instances he sets forth the circumstances, and even the catastrophe, in a light very different from that in which they are placed by M. de Pitaval. I have, however, let the facts remain as related by him from whom I happened to select them, mentioning only, at the end of each story, the author I have followed.

It is probable, that some of these striking stories may have already found their way to the English press; but, as I have been myself unable to find any preceding translation of those I had selected, I may presume that, with most English readers, my work will have the attraction of novelty.

I am aware, indeed, that it is a kind of work from which little fame can arise to its author; but I have not the false pride and delicacy to wish, that my reader should suppose me uninfluenced by humbler motives to publication.

My ambition will be satisfied, if a number of candid readers allow, that, by dint of some irksome labour, I have produced a little compilation, not inelegant in its style; and, in the matter it contains, both interesting and instructive.

CHARLOTTE SMITH.

THE MARCHIONESS DE GANGE.⁴

IT has been asserted, that there is in human nature a propensity to every kind of evil;⁵ and that persons of the best disposition, and most liberal education, may find themselves in such situations as will, if their passions are suffered to predominate, betray them into the most frightful excesses, into crimes which cannot be related without horror.

Under the dominion of such dreadful passions the Abbé and the Chevalier⁶ de Gange must have been, when they committed the inhuman cruelties which are the subject of the following narrative.

The unfortunate victim of their malice and inhumanity, was the only daughter of the Sieur⁷ de Roussan of Avignon; and tho’ her birth was not noble, the splendid fortune she was to inherit from the Sieur de Nocheres,⁸ her maternal grandfather, made her to be considered as a desirable match by the first nobility in the province.⁹ – Mademoiselle de Chateaublanc¹⁰ (as she was called before her marriage), was not only a rich heiress, but one of the loveliest women in France; and the description that remains of her person, which paints her as possessed of almost every perfection that adorns the female form, corresponds with the miniature which is extant of her, drawn by Mignard,¹¹ and allowed to be one of his most exquisite performances.

With so much personal beauty, with a soft and compassionate heart, sense rather solid than lively, a temper serene and gentle, and manners calculated to adorn and enjoy society, she was married, at the age of thirteen, to the Marquis de Castillane, grandson of the Duke de Villars.¹² This young man was of an illustrious family, handsome and well made, and had received an excellent education, which heightened the good qualities he inherited from nature.

They were married in the year 1649, and the Marquis soon afterwards carried his wife to court, where such a blazing star could not appear without attracting universal admiration. – She was immediately acknowledged the reigning beauty of the season, and that gay and gallant monarch Louis the fourteenth,¹³ was himself sensible of her uncommon attractions – admiration of so flattering a nature as would have intoxicated any other young person. – At some of those magnificent spectacles that were then given at court, the King chose Madame de Castillane for his partner in dancing – where her elegant dress, which was most fortunately chosen, and the grace with which she performed, gave new lustre to her charming face and figure. – She was less known at court by the name of the Marchioness de Castillane than by that of the beautiful Provençal.

In the midst of this dissipated circle, so dangerous to a very young person, the fair Madame de Castillane continued perfectly to possess her reason; and to those with whom she was intimate declared, that she felt the emptiness and fallacy of the pleasures with which she was surrounded, and that they afforded her no real satisfaction. – It is not to be supposed, however, that envy would wholly spare a woman so universally admired. Some adventures of gallantry were attributed to her, which those who knew her best, declared to be totally void of foundation; and, as no better proof was ever offered of their reality than the scandal of the day, it is probable they were the inventions of malice and disappointment, always ready to raise, against superior excellence, reports, which idleness and folly are as ready to propagate.¹⁴

Surrounded with gayeties and luxuries; admired by those who saw her, beloved by those who knew her, Madame de Castillane continued some time at court. And there she heard the melancholy account of the loss of the galley in which her husband some short time before had embarked, who, being overtaken by a storm on the coast of Sicily, perished, together with all who were on board. – Sincerely afflicted at his death, she retired to the house of a friend, Madame d’Ampus, till the regulation of her affairs obliged her to return to Avignon.

When she arrived at her native place, neither the pleasures of liberty, which she might now enjoy, being a widow in the earliest bloom of youth, nor the effect that her charms (which received new splendour from the dark contrast of her weeds) had on all who beheld her, could engage her to continue in the world – and she retired for a considerable time to a convent, where she permitted none to see her but her particular friends, or such as had business with her relative to her estate.

But as soon as the severe confinement to which she thought it right to conform, during the first year of her widowhood, began to relax, thro’ the solicitation of her friends, a croud of lovers surrounded her – and among the most conspicuous, was the young Marquis de Gange. His person was not less a model of manly beauty, than that of the Marchioness de Castillane for female grace and loveliness. His fortune was perfectly suitable, and his rank illustrious, being Baron de Languedoc, Marquis de Gange, and Governor of St. André. – His manners were extremely engaging, and his age did not much exceed twenty – and so well did the exterior qualities of these young persons appear to correspond, that it struck all who knew them, that they were designed by Heaven for each other. – Madame de Castillane, insensible of every other passion, soon felt and returned that of Monsieur de Gange. This second marriage took place in 1658, and the world applauded a union, which seemed so likely to secure the happiness of both parties. But however in outward advantages they appeared to agree, their souls were very different. Proud, fierce, capricious, obstinate, and gloomy, how little the Marquis de Gange resembled her, with whom his destiny was united! For some time, however, after their marriage, he concealed, under the fond attentions of the Lover and the Bridegroom, that unhappy temper, and those unpleasant manners, that afterwards appeared in the Husband – and the beautiful Marchioness, who was herself all truth and mildness, never suspected him to be otherwise than he then appeared. – Alas! to these halcyon days succeeded others, in which the ardour of his passion being abated, he no longer thought it worth his while to disguise his disposition. Ennui and disgust insensibly took possession of the Marquis, who began to mix again with the societies he had quitted on his marriage – and the Marchioness, being left to follow her own amusements, returned to be again the admiration of the crouds she had deserted for him; but it was merely for amusement she did so; and not with any design of engaging in affairs of gallantry. – She never seriously listened to any of her admirers; but, as soon as she perceived an attachment forming, that was likely to create any real uneasiness, she either wholly excluded such pretenders from her society; or, if she admitted them to it, received them with so much coolness, that the vainest among them soon found they had nothing to hope. – But though her conduct was perfectly innocent, the Marquis (conscious perhaps of the inequality of their minds) beheld it with jealousy and mistrust. – His temper, naturally morose and vindictive, was much disposed to suspicion; and his humour became every day more teazing and disagreeable to his wife – Yet, as a jealous husband is in France an object of ridicule, and as he could find nothing in the conduct of Madame de Gange, on which to found any real complaint, he constrained himself as much as he could, and suffered the uneasiness of his mind to appear only in the invincible ill temper with which he received his wife – by which, if she had really had the inclinations he suspected her of, he would only have accelerated the evil he so greatly dreaded. Such was his situation of mind, when his two brothers, the Abbé and the Chevalier de Gange, came to reside at his house. The elder of them, who was called the Abbé de Gange, possessed an uncommon share of understanding, with the malice and cunning of a fiend. – Violent, proud, and ambitious, he studied to govern every one about him; in which, from his superior abilities, he usually succeeded too well. – Having neither principles of honour or sentiments of humanity, no considerations, no laws, either divine or human, could prevent his carrying any point, on which he had once resolved. Yet this diabolical spirit he had art enough to conceal, with the profoundest dissimulation, and could assume the appearance of the most amiable, benevolent, and honest man in the world, while his heart was the receptacle of every vice that disgraces human nature. – He was not in orders, but took the equivocal title of Abbé, as being the most favourable to the indulgence of his licentious passions. – The Chevalier, whose understanding was below mediocrity, seemed born only to be directed by others; and the Abbé, without his perceiving it, governed him entirely. – Over the Marquis also the Abbé acquired the same ascendancy. His estate and his family were soon given up to the management of this assiduous brother; who left him the name of master, but enjoyed all the power. The uncommon charms of the Marchioness de Gange made an immediate and deep impression on the heart of this bad man, nor did the consideration of her being his brother’s wife deter him a moment from forming designs upon her honour. Scorning to put any restraint on his inclinations, however unwarrantable, he determined to attempt seducing Madame de Gange; and for this purpose, knowing the influence of gratitude on such a heart as hers, he began by endeavouring to oblige her. He saw how uneasily she lived with his brother, who fatigued her incessantly with jealousy and ill-humour – and the first use he made of his power over the Marquis was, to induce him to alter his conduct towards his wife: of whom the Abbé spoke so advantageously, that his jealousy began to give place to those sentiments of esteem and tenderness which he had at first felt for her. – The Marchioness, sensible of this change in her husband’s behaviour, gave way to the natural goodness and sweetness of her disposition, and forgot the harsh treatment she had lately suffered; treatment which was on the point of changing her former attachment into a settled coldness, if not aversion. The Abbé, however, did not intend that Madame de Gange should enjoy the satisfaction she received from her husband’s returning affection, without knowing to whom she owed it. – As soon as an opportunity offered, he took care to tell her, that the Marquis’s present attention, and kindness, was in consequence of what he had said in her favour – and he gave her at the same time to understand, that the heart of his brother was so entirely in his hands, that her treatment must depend wholly on him. – Disgusted at such a declaration, the Marchioness answered coolly, that she thanked him. – The Abbé was a good deal disappointed at the reception she gave him on this occasion. – He had flattered himself that she would have accepted with more vivacity his proffered services, and that, by first engaging her gratitude, he should in time create in her breast warmer sentiments in his favour. – But though a man of abilities, such as he possest, who determines to make himself agreeable, and has such continual opportunities of doing so, is above all others the most dangerous object a young woman can encounter; it happened that the dislike, even bordering on antipathy, which Madame de Gange had conceived, on the first sight of the Abbé, was an invincible obstacle to his designs. – Her manner towards him was civil, but so cold and distant, that he could very seldom find an occasion to speak to her apart. – And after some time, as he saw she studied to avoid him, and that all his assiduities made no impression on her, he determined to speak plainly, and to acknowledge his passion, in terms that she could not misunderstand.

The Marchioness had engaged herself to pass some days at the country residence of a friend. – Thither the Abbé followed her, and, as his conversation was extremely agreeable, he was received with pleasure by the whole party. – He was usually the life of whatever company he was in, and now he exerted himself to the utmost, and was more brilliant and entertaining than ever. A hunting party being proposed, at which every gentleman was to attend on a lady, the Abbé offere...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• Acknowledgements
• General Introduction
• Introduction
• References and Further Reading
• Manon L’Escaut: or, The Fatal Attachment
• The Romance of Real Life
• Explanatory Notes
• Textual Notes