Anna Letitia Barbauld: Voice of the Enlightenment
Against the background of the American and French revolutions, the Napoleonic Wars, and the struggle for religious equality in Great Britain, a brilliant, embattled woman strove to defend Enlightenment values to her nation. Poet, teacher, essayist, political writer, editor, and critic, Anna Letitia Barbauld was venerated by contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic, among them the young Walter Scott, the young Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Boston Unitarians such as William Ellery Channing....
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Against the background of the American and French revolutions, the Napoleonic Wars, and the struggle for religious equality in Great Britain, a brilliant, embattled woman strove to defend Enlightenment values to her nation. Poet, teacher, essayist, political writer, editor, and critic, Anna Letitia Barbauld was venerated by contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic, among them the young Walter Scott, the young Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Boston Unitarians such as William Ellery Channing. After decades in the historical limbo into which almost all work by women writers of her era was swept, Barbauld's writings on citizenly ethics, identity politics, church-state relations, and empire are still deeply relevant today. Inquiring and witty as well as principled and passionate, Barbauld was a voice for the Enlightenment in an age of revolution and reaction. Based on more than fifteen years of research in dozens of libraries and archives of five countries, this is the first full-length biography of one of the foremost women writers in Georgian England.
Preface: "One of the Great Minds" March 17901 Ties of Kindred 12 Home at Kibworth 173 Soul-Building 384 Warrington 625 Miss Aikin 976 Land of Matrimony 1247 Devotion 1498 Enlightenment in a Suffolk Village 1659 Mother Tongue 19010 HowThey Lived 22011 Pursuit of Happiness 24012 Revolutions 26013 Sins of the Nation 29114 "Our Political Duties" 30915 In Middle Age 34816 Subjects Light and Grave 37017 Racketing 38918 The Highest Literary Character in England 40919 Wounds 43520 "Night, Gothic Night" 45521 Legacy to Young Ladies 49122 Good Morning 512Afterword: Wisdom in Time of Need 530App.: A The Aikin House in Kibworth 539App.: B Rochemont Barbauld's Disorder 541App.: C Iconography 545App.: D Aikin-Barbauld Family Tree 549Abbreviations Used in the Notes 551Notes 553Barbauld-Aikin Sources 675General Bibliography 689Index 699Illustrations follow pagesand 358
\ Studies in English LiteratureSome lives intersect with the major events and movements of a time; Barbauld is such a figure.... She deserves the epithet of 'Voice of the Enlightenment.' This is an old-fashioned, magisterial biography.\ \ \ \ \ ChoiceBased on two decades of research and a real mastery of Romantic-era literary culture, the book provides authoritative information not only on Barbauld's life and works but also on Romantic-era politics, education, gender relations, dissenting religion, children's literature, radical politics, the booktrade, mental health, and so on... Marked by accessible prose and meticulous documentation, this will be the definitive biography of Barbauld for decades. Essential.\ \ \ Eighteenth-Century StudiesMcCarthy is true to both parts of his work's title: he not only gives us a comprehensive portrait of Anna Barbauld, but helpfully and skillfully places her voice within the social, political, and religious movements of her times. It is hard to imagine that his monumental work will be superseded anytime soon.\ — Lisa Vargo\ \ \ \ \ \ Times Higher EducationA biography to relish and remember.\ — Isobel Grundy\ \ \ \ \ \ Faith and FreedomThe title makes an extraordinary claim—that Anna Letitia Barbauld was a voice of and for the Enlightenment. How can this be said of a woman who, until this enthralling book was written, was known to so few? [The author] presents a thoroughly convincing case for saying it. He does this thanks to his extraordinary knowledge, not just of the life and work of Barbauld, but also of literature, culture and politics from her time (1743 to 1825) up to today.\ \ \ \ \ Literary ReviewWilliam McCarthy's twenty years of work on this author, which includes co-editorship of a fine Poems and Selected Poems and Prose, has now borne fruit in this monumental, quietly magnificent biography, which will surely do as much to promote Barbauld's reputation as anyone could dream.\ \ \ \ \ GuardianA superb biography that brings a radical literary figure back into the picture... a thrilling, brilliant book.\ \ \ \ \ Times Literary SupplementThe public intellectual, cultural pluralist, 'ecofeminist' and literary innovator we meet in this richly meditated study is a passionately political Anna Barbauld whose concerns speak directly to issues that vex us today.\ \ \ \ \ Transactions of the Unitarian Historical SocietyA definitive account of her life, all the more magnificent for its finely grained detail.\ \ \ \ \ Wordsworth CircleOne need not be a literary scholar to find this biography engaging, informative, and provocative, for it explores, via the life of a remarkable 18th and 19th century woman writer, still relevant aesthetic, political, religious, and gender issues.\ \ \ \ \ London Review of BooksA compendious and admiring new biography.\ — Seamus Perry\ \ \ \ \ \ The Year's Work in English StudiesThis extraordinarily packed, fluidly written biography ought to influence scholars across Romantic studies.\ \ \ \ \ Huntington Library QuarterlyRewards readers whether they are selectively dipping in or perusing the work from cover to cover... McCarthy brings psychology to bear in provocative and insightful ways.\ \ \ \ \ Studies in RomanticismAn excellent introduction not only to Barbauld herself but to the politics and culture of her time.\ \ \ \ \ ChoiceBased on two decades of research and a real mastery of Romantic-era literary culture, the book provides authoritative information not only on Barbauld's life and works but also on Romantic-era politics, education, gender relations, dissenting religion, children's literature, radical politics, the booktrade, mental health, and so on... Marked by accessible prose and meticulous documentation, this will be the definitive biography of Barbauld for decades. Essential.\ \ \ \ \ \ GuardianA superb biography that brings a radical literary figure back into the picture... a thrilling, brilliant book.\ \ \ \ \ \ Times Higher EducationA biography to relish and remember.\ — Isobel Grundy\ \ \ \ \ \ London Review of BooksA compendious and admiring new biography.\ — Seamus Perry\ \ \ \ \ \ Literary ReviewWilliam McCarthy's twenty years of work on this author, which includes co-editorship of a fine Poems and Selected Poems and Prose, has now borne fruit in this monumental, quietly magnificent biography, which will surely do as much to promote Barbauld's reputation as anyone could dream.\ \ \ \ \ \ Times Literary SupplementThe public intellectual, cultural pluralist, 'ecofeminist' and literary innovator we meet in this richly meditated study is a passionately political Anna Barbauld whose concerns speak directly to issues that vex us today.\ \ \ \ \ \ The Year's Work in English StudiesThis extraordinarily packed, fluidly written biography ought to influence scholars across Romantic studies.\ \ \ \ \ \ Faith and FreedomThe title makes an extraordinary claim -- that Anna Letitia Barbauld was a voice of and for the Enlightenment. How can this be said of a woman who, until this enthralling book was written, was known to so few? [The author] presents a thoroughly convincing case for saying it. He does this thanks to his extraordinary knowledge, not just of the life and work of Barbauld, but also of literature, culture and politics from her time (1743 to 1825) up to today.\ \ \ \ \ \ Eighteenth-Century StudiesA tour de force... Honest, wise, original.\ \ \ \ \ \ Studies in RomanticismAn excellent introduction not only to Barbauld herself but to the politics and culture of her time.\ \ \ \ \ \ Studies in English LiteratureSome lives intersect with the major events and movements of a time; Barbauld is such a figure.... She deserves the epithet of 'Voice of the Enlightenment.' This is an old-fashioned, magisterial biography.\ \ \ \ \ \ Huntington Library QuarterlyRewards readers whether they are selectively dipping in or perusing the work from cover to cover... McCarthy brings psychology to bear in provocative and insightful ways.\ \ \ \ \ \ Wordsworth CircleOne need not be a literary scholar to find this biography engaging, informative, and provocative, for it explores, via the life of a remarkable 18th and 19th century woman writer, still relevant aesthetic, political, religious, and gender issues.\ \ \ \ \ \ Transactions of the Unitarian Historical SocietyA definitive account of her life, all the more magnificent for its finely grained detail.\ \ \ \ \ \ Religion in the Age of EnlightenmentRichly illustrated, compellingly argued, and elegantly written, McCarthy’s biography of Barbauld reminds us that, despite our lip-service topostmodern cynicism... transformative scholarship continues to be fundamentally 'Enlightenment' in its values, procedures, and rhetorical forms.\ \ \ \ \ Journal of British StudiesOne leaves this biography with an intimate sense not just of how Barbauld navigated her particular worlds but also of how her interventions shaped individuals and movements in Britain and overseas.\ — Arianne Chernock\ \ \ \ \ \ Women's WritingMcCarthy establishes Barbauld as a figure of major significance. His magnificent biography will draw many others to her, and give her a new and deserved prominence in Enlightenment and Romantic studies.\ \ \ \ \ Age of JohnsonA review cannot do justice to the range covered by a biography of this magnitude. The biography synthesizes a staggering body of research into a tale well told.\ \ \ \ \ Book Bargains and PreviewsScholars of British literature and women writers will welcome this important study of one of the eighteenth century's foremost writers.\ \
