My research focuses on the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In particular, I am interested in women writers of the period, the Georgian-era theatre, and more generally, the intersection of politics and literature in the 1790s, in particular the response to the French Revolution and its aftermath in Britain. My first book, Revolutionary Imaginings in the 1790s: Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson, Elizabeth Inchbald (2009) argued for the importance of these three writers as they articulated a pro-Revolution position, one which continued even amidst the reactionary backlash of the final years of the eighteenth century. I have just completed a book that examines the later life and writings of the novelist, playwright, translator and political activist, Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809), in which I focus mainly on his career as a playwright and as a radical living in repressive political times. In addition to Holcroft’s life and works, I explore the later reception of his writings. Indeed, his dramatic works often had robust afterlives: his plays were staged throughout the nineteenth century and were performed with much success in England, America and Australia; his most famous play, The Road to Ruin (1792) even served as the basis for two silent films, both of 1913. The book “Thomas Holcroft's Revolutionary Drama: Reception and Afterlives" is under contract with Bucknell University Press and is scheduled to be published in early 2023. A side project that I have recently completed is an essay that explores the unlikely friendship between Thomas Holcroft and the composer Joseph Haydn. It is currently under review with Essays in Romanticism. |