Celestina

by Charlotte Turner Smith, Lynda Marie Neilson (Narrator), jenno (Narrator)

Celestina was adopted by Mrs. Willoughby from a convent in France. No one knows who her parents are. Her secret birth causes problems for her in the marriage market. But this novel is not only a courtship novel. It is about creating and keeping friendships, finding the meaning of family, the difference between love and obsession, and the development of Celestina from a dependent child to a strong woman of virtue. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

Genres: Classics, 18th Century, English Literature, Fiction, British Literature, Historical, Literature

2 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 1791

About the author

Charlotte Turner Smith was an English Romantic poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels of sensibility.

Reviews

[Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better big, rambly eighteenth-century romantic novels, and had me invested to the extent that I found myself in tears over the dénouement (which was a little awkward, as I was sitting next to a stranger on a flight at the time). It did take a while to get there, however, so not everyone will be willing to make the 550-page effort. Fortunately, flashes of Charlotte Smith's radical politics, and the book's deliberate involvement in various matters of contemporary debate, offer other points of interest along the way.

There are, to be sure, plenty of genre clichés in here: when you meet an orphaned heroine from an unknown background, you can put your house on the fact that her parents will turn out to be some kind of wealthy and glamourous aristos. Georgian notions of sublime, proto-Gothic grandeur are also here in spades: a third-act set-piece in the glaciers of the Pyrenees prefigures a lot of Ann Radcliffe's scenic descriptions, and I'd be amazed if it wasn't read by Mary Shelley when she was writing Frankenstein.

And, like a lot of fiction at the time, there are all kinds of taboos lurking under the surface – actually, on the surface. The hero and heroine are brought up as brother and sister, and a major part of the plot hinges on the possibility that they might be related by blood, thwarting (or piquing?) their feelings for each other. This kind of pseudo-incest was common in Radcliffe and in books like Elizabeth Inchbald's A Simple Story, to say nothing of its explosion in Matthew Lewis or Sade; I suppose people must have ostentatiously puzzled over it then the way people do now about its prevalence in porn.

While Celestina herself is a fairly typical late-eighteenth-century heroine – virtuous and beautiful – the characters around her are endlessly fascinating. She is pursued by not one, not two, but three different men, who seem designed to show a range of male behaviour: there's Montague Thorold, the romantic, who moons around after her declaring undying love and keeping a paper she dropped as though it were a holy relic; then there's the rich and rakish Vavasour, who wants to fight everyone else on her behalf but who has a girl ‘in keeping’ on the side; and finally the hero Willoughby, who is a sort of happy medium, firm enough to be ‘manly’ but more sensitive and in control of his impulses. (In a modern Regency romance, I'm pretty sure Vavasour would be the hero, ending up ‘converted’ by Celestina's love. Though admittedly I've never actually read one.)

The book is set in the late 1780s and its final movements coincide with the outbreak of the French Revolution, which is tangentially relevant to the plot. We meet a French nobleman who has happily abandoned his titles and who celebrates ‘the generous, the glorious spirit’ of freedom now sweeping the country; his backstory involves a tragic love affair destroyed by despotic power and involving lettres de cachet and imprisonment in the Bastille. It's the kind of thing radicals were all talking about at the time, and presumably was based on (or at least is very similar to) a real-life story told by Helen Maria Williams in her Letters Written in France.

It was Charlotte Smith's enthusiasm for all this that soon made her persona non grata in polite English society; her early biographers would talk about her having caught the ‘democratical contagion’. (Jane Austen, a huge devourer of Smith's books, gives you a good idea of what Smith's plots look like when stripped of their disreputable political messages – though Austen is much funnier, too.) And Smith was an interesting character for other reasons – she left her husband, and became a professional writer to support her family of seven (surviving) children on her own, living in Brighton which was then (as now, to some extent) a hotbed of radical ideas. This novel shows a keen awareness of the difficulty for women of carving out any kind of independent life for themselves. Celestina, fending off some aggressive flirtation, finds that there is nothing she can say that her pursuer ‘will not call either prudery or coquetry’ – ‘Why must I marry at all?’ she ends up wondering.

Well, quite. But if social conventions don't quite win out, genre conventions do – and these are not without their own pleasures. It's great to have such an interesting and finely written novel available in a modern edition, and this from Broadview is typically solidly edited and stuffed with supporting materials (though the editors are a little inconsistent with glossing ‘difficult’ words: they irritatingly explain what ‘genealogy’ and ‘automaton’ mean, but fail to provide guidance for a word like ‘arbeal’).

For those who like books from this time – when the novel was a more earthy and protean thing than it would soon become in the Regency period – this is a great example of the type, and is full of interesting engagements with the volatile social and political concerns of its readers. Plus it did get me sobbing on a plane, so the romance stuff works well too.

[Sotiris Karaiskos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A love story from the late nineteenth century with all the good ingredients of English romance and this is perceived by the first ones where we know Celestina, the classic heroine of such books, a girl of unknown parents growing up in a monastery in the southern France, until she is adopted by an English widow and takes her home with her. In the green and pleasant land of England she passes a pleasant childhood, comes to maturity and at some point ... love comes. This love with the beautiful and impulsive young man quickly comes to a point shortly before completion but because they are heroes of a romantic novel, of course things are not that simple. With lying and rumours, some try to separate them while the virus of jealousy enters between them and thus their love passes a very difficult period. Finally, after many moments of sadness and melancholy, things come to a solution through an exciting Gothic turn of the plot that leads us back to the beginning of the mystery.

A very interesting novel with all the cliches of the genre and the era, although in this case, the writer is the one who created many of them. Strong emotions, a melancholic atmosphere, contrasting characters of interest with different characteristics and finally a political dose about despotism and the French Revolution. One of the books that if you do not mind some things is moving and fascinating, with the reader who is accustomed to such readings being easy to identify with its protagonists. Of course, in our time such readers are not many, but certainly, those few will appreciate it in particular.

Μία ερωτική ιστορία από τα τέλη του δέκατου ένατου αιώνα με όλα τα καλά υλικά του αγγλικού ρομαντισμού και αυτό γίνεται αντιληπτό από τις πρώτες όπου γνωρίζουμε την Celestina, την κλασική ηρωίδα των βιβλίων αυτού του είδους, ένα κορίτσι αγνώστων γονέων που μεγαλώνει σε ένα μοναστήρι στη νότια Γαλλία, μέχρι που το υιοθετεί μία Αγγλίδα χήρα και το παίρνει μαζί της στην πατρίδα της. Στην πράσινη και ευχάριστη γη της Αγγλίας περνάει μία ευχάριστη παιδική ηλικία, φτάνει στην ωρίμανση και κάποια στιγμή... έρχεται ο έρωτας. Αυτός ο έρωτας με τον όμορφο και παρορμητικό νεαρό γρήγορα φτάνει σε ένα σημείο λίγο πριν την ολοκλήρωση του αλλά επειδή πρόκειται για ήρωες ενός ρομαντικού μυθιστορήματος φυσικά τα πράγματα δεν είναι τόσο απλά. Με ψέματα και φήμες κάποιοι προσπαθούν να τους χωρίσουν την ώρα που ο ιός της ζήλειας μπαίνει ανάμεσά τους, με αποτέλεσμα ο έρωτας τους να περάσει μία πολύ δύσκολη περίοδο. Τελικά μετά από πολλές στιγμές λύπης και μελαγχολίας τα πράγματα φτάνουν σε μία λύση μέσα από μία συναρπαστική γοτθική στροφή της πλοκής που μας οδηγεί πίσω στην αρχή του μυστηρίου.

Ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον μυθιστόρημα με όλα τα κλισέ του είδους και της εποχής, αν και σε αυτή την περίπτωση η συγγραφέας είναι αυτή που δημιούργησε πολλά από αυτά. Έντονα συναισθήματα, μελαγχολική ατμόσφαιρα, σκιαγράφηση ενδιαφέροντων χαρακτήρων με διαφορετικά χαρακτηριστικά και στο τέλος μία δόση πολιτικής γύρω από τον δεσποτισμό και την Γαλλική Επανάσταση. Ένα από τα βιβλία που αν δεν δώσεις σημασία σε κάποια πράγματα συγκινεί και συναρπάζει, με τον αναγνώστη που είναι συνηθισμένο σε τέτοια αναγνώσματα να είναι εύκολο να ταυτιστεί με τους πρωταγωνιστές του. Βέβαια στην εποχή μας τέτοιοι αναγνώστες δεν είναι και πολλοί αλλά σίγουρα αυτοί οι λίγοι θα το εκτιμήσουν ιδιαίτερα.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eighteenth century novel about a beautiful 'n' brilliant poetess thwarted in love. Apparently influential upon Austen, although this is the culture she rebelled against in her anthropology of the ordinary. From the sentimental to the menial. *gahs*

[LauraT · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love XIX Century fiction, with all its defects: long, wordy, meandering, unlikely, of good sentiments!!!!

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, the more I read Charlotte Smith, the more I LOVE her. I think it's everything I want from the Gothic -- complex but still basically plausible plots; emotional suspense; and still a satisfying ending. This one was particularly interesting for doubling up the 'incest plot' (and making it a little alarmingly literal at points!) -- it would be worth incorporating into studies of 18thC kinship. Especially interesting is the way that our hero seems so much more connected to our heroine than to his biological sister -- the way our heroine is contrasted with his sister so often, she almost seems worthy to be his wife because she is a better-matched sister to him.

[Grace Harwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read quite a bit of eighteenth century fiction, including all the favourites (Austen, Burney, etc) but I did really think this was a cut above the rest. I was only familiar with Smith's work previously through her poetry, which, in my opinion, is just sublime. However, her prose is equally wonderful. Witty and incisive, clearly elucidated plots with heroines who aren't wishy washy and prone to fainting (Radcliffe) and some genuinely funny comic moments, I just loved this book.

This edition is absolutely fantastic and worth the extra money alone (Broadview's reputation speaks for itself in its reproduction of literary texts). The introductory essay is interesting, the political background and other reading included as appendices at the back build up a really rounded picture of Smith's life and times. There's so much going on in the story. I loved the places that Celestina and Willoughby visited - they went pretty much everywhere and the landscape description is just wonderful. I feel as if I've been provided with the opportunity to experience their journeys vicariously (as was probably the intention of the author for all of those 18th century female readers stuck at home in their drawing rooms). Vavasour with his excesses was fabulous as was Montague Thorold with his undying devotion (until he meets the next girl). With all the dramas and upsets of the traditional courtship novel, Smith maintains the suspense beautifully until the end. I thought the last volume was the weakest with its hurried ending and late introduction of a brand new character, but at least it cleared everything up. This is a wonderful, wonderful book by a wonderful, wonderful writer who is now largely forgotten by contemporary audiences. If you are a fan of 18th century literature, I cannot recommend this enough.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book resembles Cecilia by Frances Burney, and I found out that this is no coincidence. Charlotte Smith read Burney's works, and Jane Austen, in turn, read both Smith and Burney. Evidently, it was not considered plagiarism in the late 1700s/early 1800s to write about similar circumstances and places. Readers enjoyed seeing how different characters handled similar situations. I liked Cecilia better, because Burney's prose is so elegant and beautiful. Smith's writing is simpler, and the plot and characters are simpler. Still, it was a good read; it felt like reading the chick lit of the 18th century. Fun!

[wobba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though there were many aspects I disliked about this novel, which could be simply because the tropes used in this novel are now considered cliche and overused, I did enjoy it overall, especially the last volume. There was quite a bit of what seemed to me filler, and it was at times too slow paced. The last chapter also seemed extremely rushed, though then again I have not read many novels from the late 18th century so this could have been a common way to end a novel. I wanted to drown most of the major characters, yet in the end I still wanted happy endings for them all.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Charlotte Smith novel I have read, but after reading this one, I won't be my last. You can tell the ways that the novel influenced Jane Austen. In fact, Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility referenced and played with themes from this novel (one scene in particular is almost indistinguishable from the pages of this novel).

[Scarlettfish · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last part of this novel is the most interesting. That's where it lifts from a mere romance to a contribution to the political debate about the French Revolution. Still, the romance is lots of fun. Not Smith's best, but still immensely readable.