Belmour: A Novel in Three Volumes (1801)
by Cassandra Reeves
Anne Seymour Damer’s first and only published novel is her 1801 Belmour, a didactic tale of forbidden romance steeped heavily with allusions to Damer's thoughts regarding 18th century aristocracy, elicit affairs, and her own life and the individuals closest to her. Chiefly, these were her closest companion, author Mary Berry (1763–1852), and her godfather, mentor, and at times the source of much of her life’s complications, Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717–1797). Detailing the lives of a cohort of aristocrats, the novel focuses primarily on the titular hero Lord Belmour, widowed much like Damer herself, following the suicide of her husband John Damer on August 15th, 1776. The object of Belmour’s affections is Emily Melville, a woman he comes to know only after falling in love with her after she has married an older man. Thus begins a tumultuous affair punctuated by Belmour’s trips to Portugal, Spain and Italy and culminating in the death of Emily’s husband, allowing the ill-fated pair to finally be together. Each of these characters mirrors a figure in Damer’s life – for Anne, it is Belmour himself, Emily as Berry and her elderly husband, a stand-in for Walpole.
Damer’s journey with her novel started whilst abroad on a trip to Portugal. Plagued with precarious and delicate health, Damer took frequent trips to warmer climates when the harsh, cold winters of England became too much to bear. The novel was, for Damer, a passion project rather than a vehicle for monetary gain ("The Life of Anne Damer”). As an exceedingly rich woman, there was no financial need for her to rush herself and, in fact, the time spent writing proved to be immensely beneficial, providing an outlet during times of what she described as “melancholy” (“Belmour: A Modern Edition”) following John Damer’s death and assuaging the intense loneliness she experienced while abroad by herself. Penning her novel from 1771-1797 was also somewhat of a social experience. Sending copies prior to publication to her closest friends and frequent communication with Berry regarding the writing process provided Damer with suggestions and feedback, an invaluable source of social interaction in a time when the two women had been forced apart by the many varied slanderous writings published accusing them of a friendship that leaned much more toward romantic than platonic (“Anne Damer entry: Life screen within Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present”). In turn, Damer assisted Berry in editing a play titled Fashionable Friends which would be published anonymously, seeing Damer making subsequent appearances on stage in amateur theatrical productions of the work, taking on a leading role (“The Life of Anne Damer”).
However, while Berry’s play would prove to be somewhat of a blunder, the publication of Belmour in 1801 served to be a much-welcomed bright turn of events for Damer. The author herself did not hold high expectations, feeling slighted by the general public and expecting an unkind reception (“The Life of Anne Damer”). Reaction, however, leaned toward the positive. Reviewers took issue with the perceived lax morality of the characters, while still applauding the novel as a whole. The author of the Monthly Review would, upon publication, indicate they could not find the “author’s moral sentiments quite correct” and took particular issue with the work’s stance on marriage, describing Lord Belmour’s affair with married character Lady Rosenberg as “violating the rights of honour and hospitality by his criminal intimacy” with her. Damer’s artistry and storytelling were lauded, particularly her descriptions regarding the inner workings of the aristocracy – being a member of the upper class herself, the social intricacies between Belmour and his circle were seen as realistic and wonderfully detailed (“Romantic Genius: The Prehistory of a Homosexual Role”).
Information on the publication process of Belmour itself is scarce. Published in three volumes, early copies are described as “extra-illustrated” and included “reproductions of busts of her mother and poems addressed to the author” (“The Life of Anne Damer”). This perhaps illustrates Damer’s immense satisfaction in her work and a rightly earned sense of achievement not only in her writing, but in her other artistic talent as an accomplished sculptor. Interestingly, the first edition was published without Damer’s name. Printed by Joseph Johnson (1738-1809), a noteworthy publisher and bookseller in early nineteenth-century London, the cover page simply reads ‘BELMOUR: A NOVEL IN THREE VOLUMES.’ Johnson himself was known for championing female authors, notably striking a long-lasting close working relationship and steadfast friendship with Mary Wollstonecraft, assisting her in the publication of all her writings, particularly the influential A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Johnson would also publish several works from another eminent woman from William Upcott’s album, including Anna Laetitia Barbauld (“Joseph Johnson (publisher)”). An anonymous, three-volume novel, Letters of Miss Riversdale, was published in 1803 by Johnson and is believed to have been written by Damer (“Anne Damer entry: Life screen within Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present”). Another of Upcott’s eminent women, Charlotte Smith, would publicly attribute the work to Damer and cite various similarities to Belmour in style, tone, and the names of characters as evidence.
In a first edition copy of the second volume from the University of Minnesota’s library, Damer’s full name and title is written in the blank space where an author’s name would be. Referenced with surviving examples of Damer’s signature, including that which is included in Upcott’s album, the penmanship is consistent with her own and for this reason, is believed to have likely been written by her own hand. It is unclear why Damer might have written her own name or who the copy was for, though it might perhaps have been for a friend or close acquaintance. Damer frequently gifted copies of the novel to her female friends, particularly as wedding presents (“Anne Damer entry: Life screen within Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present”).
While the novel’s first edition cover is entirely unassuming, with the title and volume indication followed by printing and publishing information, the subsequent editions proved to be slightly more embellished. Upon Johnson’s death in 1809, his printing business fell into a steep decline. Publication for the second and subsequent editions of Belmour was helmed by Henry Colburn (1784-1855) out of his New Burlington Street location in 1827, just one year before the death of Damer. In this updated printing, the first volume is described as being a New Edition and includes Damer’s full name and title. Colburn was the publisher for fellow eminent woman Lady Caroline Lamb as featured in William Upcott’s album, taking charge of publication for her controversial novel Glenarvon (1816), inspired by Lamb’s tumultuous and torrid affair with Lord Byron. Upcott himself was a close friend and colleague of Colburn, publishing a number of the antiquary’s earlier works (“Henry Colburn”, “Lady Caroline Lamb”).
Belmour was, for Damer, something of an attempt to put an end to the persistent and varied rumours surrounding her sexuality that plagued her life following becoming a widow. The novel, which has been described by individuals such as noted Damer scholar Jonathan Gross as a Gothic romance (“Belmour: A Modern Edition”), was likewise an outlet for the frustrations she felt in her rocky relationship with Horace Walpole who would not live to see the publication of the novel and is best alluded to in the character of Emily Melville’s older husband. Dark, stormy, and overbearing, this caricature of a harshly doting and somewhat suffocating figure mirrors the way Damer and Berry spoke about the eccentric Walpole in their personal correspondence, with the former gifting him with the moniker “The Grim King” (“Anne Damer entry: Life screen within Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present”). Walpole’s affections for Berry and her sister Agnes were a point of contention for Damer, who felt as though her godfather was unjustifiably possessive of the pair as he seemed to become angry with the closeness she had developed with Mary in particular (“Belmour: A Modern Edition”). That her novel ends with the death of Emily’s elderly husband and the subsequent marriage of Lord Belmour to the long-term target of his affections and newly available woman is perhaps one of the most apparent similarities to Damer’s own life, as it was only following Walpole’s own passing that she and Berry were able to reunite and eventually reside together. The allusive nature of Belmour was a roman-à-clef of her own life, creating something of a love triangle between Lord Belmour, Emily, and her husband that mirrored the nature of Damer’s relationships with Berry and Walpole. However, framing this complicated interrelation in the context of a straight relationship served both as an outlet for Damer’s frustrations and categorizes the novel as something almost like queer literature in offering a heterosexualized account of her life, and was a successful ploy to quell the rampant rumours regarding her personal life by presenting an example of a heteronormative relationship to the public.
The publication of her only official novel would be a seminal moment in Damer’s life and career. Though never publishing again – at least under her own name – reception was mostly positive, buoying her reputation and restoring a sense of dignity within her and in the public that had been lost amid a torrent of attacks and accusations about her marriage and personal life. While Belmour may not be regarded as one of the greatest literary works of all time, it stands on its own as a strong narrative and criticism of 18th century aristocracy, an inside look at some of the debauchery that festered within it, and an exemplary testament to the overarching moral that true love will prevail despite it all.