D'Arcy

This epistolary novel was written by Charlotte Smith the publisher claimed and dedicated by royal permission to Frederick, Duke of York in 1793. It all was a sham. 


The real author is unknown, but we know that the novel D'Arcy was not written by Charlotte Smith as she states in a letter to Joseph Cooper Walker, dated January 20th, 1794: „It seems my name is thought useful enough to tempt people to forge it. Very certainly I never wrote a line of the Novel you name called D’Arcy, or ever saw or heard of it.”

 

Charlotte Smith made sure that this was also known to the general public:


“We are happy in being able to say that this ingenious lady is employed on another work of fancy. Her last production, The Wanderings of Warwick, is rich in beauties. In justice to this charming novelist, we beg leave to inform our readers, that the novel of D’Arcy was not written by Charlotte Smith, as the publisher pretended. Nor was it our Charlotte Smith who was lately divorced from her husband.” – Anthologia Hibernica, February 1794