The Anti-Jacobin Novel

Abstract

The French Revolution sparked an ideological debate which also brought Britain to the brink of revolution in the 1790s. Just as radicals wrote 'Jacobin' fiction, so the fear of rebellion prompted conservatives to respond with novels of their own; indeed, these soon outnumbered the Jacobin novels. This was the first survey of the full range of conservative novels produced in Britain during the 1790s and early 1800s. M. O. Grenby examines the strategies used by conservatives in their fiction, thus shedding new light on how the anti-Jacobin campaign was understood and organised in Britain. Chapters cover the representation of revolution and rebellion, the attack on the 'new philosophy' of radicals such as Godwin and Wollstonecraft, and the way in which hierarchy is defended in these novels. Grenby's book offers an insight into the society which produced and consumed anti-Jacobin novels, and presents a case for reexamining these neglected texts.

British Conservatism, the Illuminati, and the Conspiracy Theory of the French Revolution, 1797–1802

“…38 In Thomas Skinner Surr's George Barnwell (1798), a mob surrounds the house of the character Mr Mental, "known to own a large and secret laboratory full of obscure electrical and chemical apparatus, known to be an exponent of the new philosophy, and suspected to be a member of the Illuminati." 39 In Charles Lucas's The Infernal Quixote (1801), the works of Robison and Barruel are referenced while the Illuminati themselves are damned as the "diabolistical part" of modern philosophy. "These despise," Lucas avowed, "the knowledge of what is past.…”

Reading against Reform: The Bristol Library Society and the Intellectual Culture of Bristol's Elections in 1812*

“…In both, Hamilton set her sights against the levelling tendency of French principles, as well as the 'new philosophy' of British writers such as Wollstonecraft, William Godwin and Mary Hays. 103 French domestic politics, even events occurring some two decades earlier, continued to appear prominently in the reading material of Bristol readers in 1812. The resultant anxiety from such a reading syllabus would have been heightened by a number of features of the October general election.…”

‘My mite for its protection’: The Conservative Woman as Action Hero in the Writings of Charlotte West

“…3 To name only a few examples, Helen Craik's anti-Jacobin novels Julia de St Pierre, Adelaide de Narbonne and Stella of the North were written in 1796, 1800 and 1802 respectively, Jane West's A Tale of the Times was written in 1799, and Mary Anne Burges's The Progress of the Pilgrim Good-Intent reached its tenth edition in 1822. 4 These anti-Jacobin novels can be read not as propaganda as such, but as attempts to reflect the overwhelmingly popular political position by the end of the 1790s. Much of the success of anti-Jacobin writings can be attributed to ongoing hostility towards the French.…”