Bibliographic Essay

Charlotte Smith and The Emigrants: a poem, in two books

Introduction

Within this essay, I will be exploring a different aspect of Charlotte Smith. Instead of a personal telling of Charlotte Smith’s life, I will focus on the technical side of her printed novel The Emigrants: a poem in two books and how it would have been read and interpreted by its readers. The copy I will be analysing is from an online database, and therefore is a digitized copy, however, it still allows room for analysis. By interpreting the bibliographic codes of Charlotte Smith’s digitized but original publication of The Emigrants: a poem in two books, we can discover where it was originally published, who published it, who the intended audience for the book was, and whether or not there were more editions published. Within this essay, I hope to convey a greater insight into Charlotte Smith’s publishing and her success. To achieve this insight, I will give a clear description of the importance of bibliographic codes as well as the importance of a readers first impression. I will also analyse the preceding texts to the poem, one of which addresses William Cowper, while the final text before the poem was likely added by the publisher, however, is still important to the overall conception of Charlotte Smith as a writer.

Importance of Bibliographic Codes

George Bornstein has argued that “limiting attention solely to the text ignores the aura inherent in the original body of work” (Georgia Douglas Johnson paragraph 8). To further understand Bornstein’s train-of-thought he “defines aura as ‘the presence of the work of art in time and space’ that is consistently lost through mechanical reproduction” (Georgia Douglas Johnson paragraph 8). This is simply a fancy of way saying, there can be so much information drawn through the original copy of a text and that there is a significance behind reprints and new editions of texts. Reprints and new editions of novels could vary ever so slightly from the original copy, or at times they could add completely new elements to a text. For example, within a new edition of a novel, the author could choose to write a new introduction addressing different kinds of readers or they could choose to add or eliminate pictures. Each change, no matter how large or small falters the text from its original aura. One of Charlotte Smith’s original copies of The Emigrants: a poem in two books is physically located at the University of California, however through their online database, Babel, the public has a fully digitized copy, which allows for more accessibility.

First Impression

A reader within the 18th century would first open the page of The Emigrants: a poem in two books, and would immediately see, writing in huge font between two bold horizontal lines, “THE EMIGRANTS.” Charlotte Smith’s name is followed on the opening page, referred to as a half-title. However, the publication and the date do not immediately strike the reader’s attention. The reader of the novel is left with the impression of the title as an incredibly strong one, as the font for the word “the” is notably smaller than the word “emigrants.” There is no room for pondering what the novel could be about, as the publisher made the title very clear and straight to the point, using a simple, large font. The full title page immediately follows with “THE EMIGRANTS, A POEM, IN TWO BOOKS” written on the middle, centre page. Once again, 'Emigrants' is the most prominent word on the page that focuses the reader’s attention on the novel's theme. An emigrant is “a person who leaves their own country in order to settle permanently in another” (Lexico Dictionaries). It is evident that Charlotte Smith expected her readers to understand this definition of emigrant, and if not, they should look it up, seeing as it appears in both the half-title and full title page. Underneath the title, the publisher has included Charlotte Smith’s name, surrounded by the same horizontal line bordered pattern shown on the half-title page. This draws the reader’s attention directly to Charlotte Smith’s name, so they cannot mistake the true author of the work and can recognize it was done solely by Charlotte Smith, and there were no co-authors. By Charlotte Smith publishing with her own name, it shows how much agency and confidence she possessed regarding her writing ability at the time. Following Charlotte Smith’s name is the location of where she published her poem, which says “London: printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand. 1793.” Thomas Cadell “was a successful 18th-century English bookseller who published works by some of the most famous writers of the 18th century” (Wikipedia). It was conventional to have the publisher's name underneath the author's name, as it represented how good of a writer the author was. Especially if they were in the same position as Charlotte Smith and were getting published by the same man who “published works by the jurist William Blackstone, the philosopher David Hume, the author and critic Samuel Johnson... the historian Catherine Macaulay, and the moralist Hannah More” (Wikipedia).  The Strand in London was also a significant place to have a publishing company reside in as it was a thoroughfare in the middle of London, which bustled with activity. It was a very public and busy place. The fact that Charlotte Smith published there would have also been a statement to her readers that she was also included in the hustle and bustle of the city life, keeping her contemporary.

the emigrants 1.png the emigrants 2.png

Charlotte Smith’s Letter to William Cowper

 Before readers catch a glimpse at Charlotte Smith’s actual poem, she writes a dedication “to William Cowper, esq.” Charlotte Smith addresses Cowper in a way that shows how he was her inspiration for writing in blank verse. William Cowper was “one of the most widely read English poets of his day... Cowper wrote of the joys and sorrows of everyday life and was content to describe the minutiae of the countryside” (Britannica). Charlotte Smith immediately states that her poems “would never perhaps existed, had [she] not, amid the heavy pressure of many sorrows, derives infinite consolation from [his] Poetry, and some degree of animation and of confidence from [his] esteems.” (Smith 5) Charlotte Smith is thanking William Cowper as he opened a new perspective on poetry for her. By Charlotte Smith addressing Cowper, the reader understands that she has read essential works from the 18th-century and fine-tuned her skills by studying popular poets.

Further in the dedication, Charlotte Smith quotes Milton “when he says, ‘The Angel ended, and in Adam’s ear / So charming left his voice, that he awhile / thought him still speaking.” (Smith vi) By directly quoting Milton, Charlotte Smith discretely states how she has been educated and well-versed with poetry's classics. This entire dedication to William Cowper, in essence, gives the reader the impression that Charlotte Smith is well-versed within the poetic sphere as she associates her work alongside not only one of the most popular English poets of the 18th-century but also one of the most recognizable poets of the 17th-century, John Milton. Within the first few pages, before the reader has even gotten the chance to read her poem, Charlotte Smith has already convinced readers that she is among the best, by proving that she publishes with the best, she dedicates her works to the best and her knowledge has been influenced by the best.

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Charlotte Smith's Dedication to William Cowper P1

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Charlotte Smiths Dedication to William Cowper P2

Preceding the Poems

 Lastly, before the reader can dig into the poems, the publishers write a list of lately published works done by Charlotte Smith. This list would be used as a sort of advertisement, however, follows as such:

  1. "ELEGAIC SONNETS, 5th Edition, with additional Sonnets and other Poems; adorned with Plates. 6s. in Boards.
  2. EMMELINE, the Orphan of the Castle, 4 Vols. 3d Edition. 12s in Boards.
  3. ETHELINDE; or, The Recluse of the Lake, 5 Vols. 2d Edition. 15s in Boards.
  4. CELESTINA, 4 Vols. 2d Edition. 12s. in Boards.
  5. THE ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE, 3 Vols. 9s. in Boards” (Smith 10)

It is made evident that all of these works are published by the same publisher of The Emigrants and there is a mention of how they were all published in the Strand as well, confirming their legitimacy. In a sense, this brings validity to Charlotte Smith’s work by expressing her previous successes, listing how there are multiple editions of each piece of work, that all include multiple volumes. However, it also advertises for Charlotte Smith as it directs the reader to more focused works of her, forcing them to engage with more of her works. By placing this list of works at the beginning of the test, it forces the reader to quickly glance over them, something that could be easily missed if placed at the very end. It also allows the reader an easy guide to find when they want to read more of her work.

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Previously Published Works

Who Were the Intended Readers?

 Based on the first ten pages within the manuscript, Charlotte Smith expected her readers to have a certain level of class and sophistication. Simply through the name of her manuscript, the readers must already have social awareness and understanding of emigrants and their position within society. As the contents of the actual poem “weave... together [Smith’s] personal history with that of nations, expresses her detestation of the current war, and depicts the impact that national and international politics have on private lives” (Brown), Charlotte Smith expected her readers to have a world-view and political understanding of the climate that they were living in. Charlotte Smith not so subtly name drops important figures within the poetic sphere, such as Cadell, Cowper, and Milton, which also indicates that she expects her readers to have the same standard of knowledge pertaining to the classics, so they would understand her blank verse and the art behind creating it. The company which publishes Charlotte Smith’s works was well known, located in a busy city therefore it would be assumed that her works would be published and sold at a relatively higher price; however, her works sold at a relatively moderate price giving access to an array of different readers. As seen in the list of her previous works, the highest price would have been 15 shillings. Ultimately, the intended readers would have been educated, socially and politically aware, and willing to pay a few shillings for a good read.  

Works Cited

“BIOS.” Georgia Douglas Johnson, https://georgiadouglasjohnson.com/bibliographiccodes/.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "William Cowper". Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Nov. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Cowper. Accessed 29 November 2021.

Brown, Susan, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, eds. Charlotte Smith entry: Writing screen within Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Online, 2006. <http://orlando.cambridge.org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/>.

“Emigrant: Meaning & Definition for UK English.” Lexico Dictionaries | English, Lexico Dictionaries, https://www.lexico.com/definition/emigrant. 

Smith, Charlotte. The Emigrants: A Poem, in Two Books. T. Cadell, 1793. 

“Thomas Cadell (Publisher).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Sept. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cadell_(publisher). 

Bibliography [Paige Serrer]