'My mite for its protection': the conservative woman as action hero in the writings of Charlotte West

Stephanie Russo*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Charlotte West's A Ten Years' Residence in France (1821) forms part of a tradition of writing about the French Revolution, yet its idiosyncratic narrator renders the text unusual. The text is a blend of travel narrative, memoir and quasi-Gothic adventure novel. West's presentation of herself as a royalist heroine constitutes a re-imagining of women's role within the public sphere. Her privileging of the active female political agent might seem to sit uneasily with her royalist politics, but it is within its blend of radical feminism and political conservatism that the significance of this text lies.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)43-60
Number of pages18
JournalJournal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Volume41
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2018

Keywords

  • anti-Jacobin novel
  • Charlotte West
  • counter-revolutionary writing
  • French Revolution
  • Marie Antoinette
  • travel-writing

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