Charlotte Turner Smith dating history

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Charlotte Turner Smith (4 May 1749 – 28 October 1806) was an English Romantic poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped to establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels of sensibility. She produced ten novels, three poetry books, four children's books, and some other works during her career. She saw herself primarily as a poet, this being considered the most exalted form of literature in that period. Scholars credit her with transforming the sonnet into an expression of woeful sentiment. In adulthood, Charlotte Smith eventually left her husband Benjamin Smith and began writing to support their children. Her struggle to do so and frustrated attempts to gain legal protection as a woman provided themes for her poetry and novels; she included portraits of herself and her family in her novels and details of her life in her prefaces. Her early novels are exercises in aesthetic development, particularly of the Gothic and sentimentality. Her later novels, including The Old Manor House, often seen as her best, supported the ideals of the French Revolution. But her popularity waned. By 1803 she was destitute, could barely hold a pen, and sold her books to pay off her debts. She died in 1806, to be largely forgotten by the mid-19th century, though she has recently been republished and recognised as an important Romantic writer.