Mary Robinson and the Gothic

During the mid-1780s to her death in 1800, Mary Darby Robinson was a celebrated actress and the mistress of the Prince of Wales. She wrote prolifically, mastering a wide range of styles, and became the poetry editor of the Morning Post. Her writing developed across the 1790s, using Gothic fiction and drama to critique male dominance and the forms of writing in which it appeared. This progression culminated in her final collection of verses, Lyrical Tales (1800), which Gothically exposes the conflicted underpinnings in the Lyrical Ballads (1798) by Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 75 pages
Publication date: 27 April 2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Mary Darby Robinson, a celebrated actress on the London stage from 1776 to 1780, gained notoriety as the mistress of the Prince of Wales from 1779 to 1780. Despite facing financial challenges in the mid-1780s, she resorted to writing to support herself until her passing in 1800. Robinson's literary career was marked by her versatility, as she mastered a wide range of styles and published prolifically. She also assumed the role of poetry editor for the Morning Post, further solidifying her position in the literary world.

Over the course of the 1790s, Robinson's writing evolved significantly, incorporating the motifs of Gothic fiction and drama inspired by Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto (1764). These thematic elements became increasingly prominent in her late novels and poems, to the point where she even wrote her autobiography as a Gothic romance. Furthermore, she employed these gothic tropes to critique the ideologies of male dominance and the forms of writing that perpetuated them.

The culmination of this artistic progression can be seen in her final collection of verses, Lyrical Tales (1800), where Robinson Gothically exposes the conflicted underpinnings in the now-famous Lyrical Ballads (1798) by Wordsworth and Coleridge. Through her writing, Robinson not only explored the darker aspects of human nature but also challenged the societal norms and conventions of her time. Her legacy as a pioneering female writer continues to inspire and influence contemporary literature and culture.

ISBN-13: 9781009160872