Mary Robinson Criticism
Mary Robinson (1758-1800), an accomplished English poet, novelist, and essayist, emerged as a significant figure in Romantic literature. Despite being overshadowed by the notoriety of her romantic liaisons, particularly with the Prince of Wales, Robinson's literary contributions were substantial. Known for her beauty and talent as an actress, her career was abruptly halted by illness, leading her to focus on writing. Her works include popular Gothic novels and poetry collections such as Poems and Lyrical Tales, which placed her among influential poets like Coleridge and Wordsworth. Robinson often utilized pseudonyms, allowing her to explore various literary forms and engage with themes of gender and social norms. She was a central figure in intellectual circles, interacting with luminaries such as William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and took an active role in the women's rights discourse, as seen in her treatise, Thoughts on the Condition of Women. Robinson's relationship with Coleridge, explored by critics like Martin J. Levy, highlights a mutual literary influence. Her poetry often depicted romanticized visions of London, as noted by Judith Pascoe. Despite her celebrated literary endeavors, Robinson's complex persona and reputation as a temptress have fueled both public fascination and scholarly debate. Critics such as Jacqueline M. Labbe and Anne K. Mellor have examined how she navigated the social expectations of her time, exploiting her gender to maintain a literary career. Her legacy, initially overshadowed by her personal life, has been revived through modern scholarly interest, reestablishing her as a pivotal voice in Romantic literature.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Essays
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Coleridge, Mary Robinson, and Kubla Khan
(summary)
In the following essay, Levy explores Coleridge's relationship to Mary Robinson and considers why he showed her Kubla Khan before it was published. The critic examines both authors' use of opium as a possible reason for Robinson's early familiarity with the poem.
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The Spectacular Flâneuse: Mary Robinson and the City of London
(summary)
In the following essay, Pascoe suggests that Robinson's poetry offers a romantic, idealized depiction of London that was based upon the poet's limited observations from her carriage, a necessary means of travel that prevented an awareness of the “grubbier exigencies of her surroundings.”
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Selling One's Sorrows: Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson, and the Marketing of Poetry
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Labbe illustrates the way Mary Robinson and Charlotte Smith exploited their gender so that their audience saw them as women writing out of economic necessity, rather than as women breaking social expectations.
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A Stranger Minstrel: Coleridge's Mrs. Robinson
(summary)
In the following essay, Luther explores the nature of Coleridge's feelings as both a father-protector and a critic to the older, more established Mary Robinson, as evidenced in their literary exchanges.
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Mrs. Robinson and the Masquerade of Womanliness
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In the following essay, Cullens examines Mary Robinson's novel Walsingham in light of her Memoirs.
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Mary Robinson's Lyrical Tales in Context
(summary)
In the following essay, Curran considers Mary Robinson's Lyrical Tales for its contemporary significance. Curran looks at her publisher's placement of Robinson alongside Southey, Coleridge, and Wordsworth as the preeminent poets of the time, and examines the dynamics between these four poets.
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Becoming an Author: Mary Robinson's Memoirs and the Origins of Woman Artist's Autobiography
(summary)
In the following essay, Peterson asserts that Robinson's Memoirs was an attempt “to present herself as an authentic Romantic artist,” an attempt that was largely rejected by the reading public. According to Peterson, the work was also a deathbed effort to provide financial support for her daughter, who finished the work and published it after her mother's death.
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Snapshots of Contradiction in Mary Robinson's Poetical Works
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In the following essay, Miskolcze reexamines women writers' place in the early Romantic movement by considering Mary Robinson's poetry, wherein her use of exiles and fugitives can be read as embodiments of the contradictions within the movement itself.
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Engendering a Female Subject: Mary Robinson's (Re)Presentations of the Self
(summary)
In the following essay, Ty looks at Mary Robinson's Memoirs, her treatise Thoughts on the Condition of Women and on the Injustice of Mental Subordination, and her novel The False Friend for the ways these works depict different aspects of Robinson's self-construction, and considers how the narratives of these works present shifting representations of Robinson's female identity.
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Mary Robinson and the Literary Marketplace
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In the following essay, Pascoe contends that the daily literary and gossip journal, The Morning Post, was an ideal forum for Mary Robinson's poetry.
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Introduction to Sappho and Phaon: In a Series of Legitimate Sonnets
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In the following essay Hoagwood and Jackson examine the ten sonnets that comprise Mary Robinson's Sappho and Phaon: In a Series of Legitimate Sonnets for their textual history and for their anti-Romantic critique of idealized sexual love.
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The Wild Wreath: Cultivating a Poetic Circle For Mary Robinson
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In the following essay, Lee considers the collection of verses by notable Romantic poets, The Wild Wreath, edited by Maria Elizabeth Robinson, for the significance of Mary Robinson's posthumous contributions, which dominate the volume and represent Robinson's daughter's attempt to ensure her mother's place in the Romantic canon.
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Romancing the Reign of Terror: Sexual Politics in Mary Robinson's Natural Daughter
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In the following essay, Setzer examines Mary Robinson's novel The Natural Daughter for its representation of the influence of revolutionary ideals. In the novel, Robinson uses her heroine Martha Morley to defend her own professional acting and writing careers and to enter into the philosophical debate over women's rights.
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Embodying Marie Antoinette: The Theatricalized Female Subject
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Pascoe discusses Mary Robinson's encounter with Marie Antoinette, as recounted in her Memoirs, her tract Impartial Reflections on the Present Situation of The Queen of France, and her poetry.
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Fathers as Monsters of Deceit: Robinson's Domestic Criticism in The False Friend
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In the following essay, Ty reads Mary Robinson's nightmarish Gothic novel The False Friend for its portrayal of Robinson's vision of the end of the eighteenth century.
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Mary Robinson and the Myth of Sappho
(summary)
In the following essay, McGann offers a close reading of Mary Robinson's Sappho and Phaon and explores how she re-envisions the myth surrounding the Greek poetess Sappho.
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Making an Exhibition of Her Self: Mary “Perdita” Robinson and Nineteenth-Century Scripts of Female Sexuality
(summary)
In the following essay, Mellor considers the construction of nineteenth-century female sexuality by looking at the various ways Mary Robinson's life-story was told, and the alternate characterizations of her as a whore, an unprotected wife, a star-crossed lover, and a talented, successful artist.
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The Dying Game: Crossdressing in Mary Robinson's Walsingham
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In the following essay, Setzer considers notorious eighteenth-century crossdressers, Mary Robinson's own experiences with crossdressing, and the crossdressing plot in her novel Walsingham; or The Pupil of Nature, and reflects on the resulting commentary on contemporary notions of gender.
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From Lyrical Ballads to Lyrical Tales: Mary Robinson's Reputation and the Problem of Literary Debt
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In the following essay, Cross presents Lyrical Tales as an effort by Robinson to assert “her literary debt and her poetic autonomy” by linking it with Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads and exposing the issues of literary reputation and female authorship.
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Cross-Dressing and the Nature of Gender in Mary Robinson's Walsingham
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In the following essay, Shaffer considers gender panic, or cultural anxiety over gender boundaries and sexualized bodies, at the end of the eighteenth century, and reads Mary Robinson's novel Walsingham for its depiction of female cross-dressing and gender identity.
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Mary Robinson and the New Lyric
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In the following essay, Curran asserts that Robinson's greatest legacy is her innovative use of metrical and sonic effects to create a contemporary sound and style.
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‘The Strongest but Most Undecorated Language’: Mary Robinson's Rhetorical Strategy in Letter to the Women of England.
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In the following essay, Hodson considers Robinson's use of specific linguistic elements to identify purpose and audience in her piece on women's rights entitled Letter to the Women of England.
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Coleridge, Mary Robinson, and Kubla Khan
(summary)
- Further Reading