The Old Manor House

The Novel

Charlotte Smith wrote one of her most successful novels, The Old Manor House in 1793. The novel has a Gothic setting and tells the tale of the secret love of Monimia, a girl of relatively humble background, and Orlando, descendant of the upper class line of the Rayland family. The novel is set against the backdrop of American War of Independence and reflects on democracy, class struggle, and the injustices of the inheritance system.


The Author

Charlotte Smith was born in 1749 to Nicholas Turner, a well-to-do country gentleman, and his wife, Anna. After his wife died, the ever-extravagant Nicholas Turner determined to remarry for money and was introduced to the middle-aged Henrietta Meriton. Their marriage took place in 1764 on the condition that the now fifteen-year old Charlotte would be removed from the household. Young Charlotte was married to Benjamin Smith, son of a wealthy West India merchant. The wedding took place on 23 February 1765. Unfortunately any hopes of happiness were short lived. Smith was soon to find herself irretrievably joined to a dissolute gambler. 


Although any affection Smith may have had for her husband died early on in the marriage, she did accompany him to debtor's prison in 1783. She had a strong sense of her duty as a wife, but her anger against male oppression and the powerlessness of women in the patriarchal society in which she lived is reflected in all her novels. 


Towards the end of her life, Charlotte Smith was increasingly restless, living in London, Weymouth, Exmouth, Bath and Oxford. She was now crippled with arthritis and writing had become extremely painful and difficult. Charlotte Smith died only a few months before her husband at Tilford, near Farnham, on 28 October 1806. 


Contemporary Reviews (1793)


Analytical Review: We give the ingenious author of the Old Manor House, to whom the public has been indebted for some other similar productions, great credit for her talents as a novelist.


The English Review: Old Manor House is a story which has afforded us much pleasure. It is equal to any of the former novels of Mrs. Smith, except Desmond. We have again had occasion to remark Mrs. Smith's excellence in the descriptive and in the pathetic.


The Monthly review: The main plot is diversified with many collateral occurrences, which all contribute to give unity to the whole. The characters are drawn with strength and discrimination, and speak their own appropriate language. This novel particularly contains many very successful imitations of the ordinary language of people in different classes of the inferior ranks, which may in some instances remind the reader of that great painter of manners, Henry Fielding.