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Jacobin Novel

The Novel and Its Forms

Jacobin novels were written between 1780 and 1805 by British radicals who supported the ideals of the French Revolution. The term was coined by the literary scholar Gary Kelly in his 1976 study The English Jacobin Novel 1780-1805, drawn from the title of the Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner, a conservative periodical founded by the Tory politician George Canning, who chose to tar British reformers with the French term for the most radical revolutionaries, the Jacobins. Writers associated with the Jacobin novel include William Godwin, Robert Bage, Elizabeth Inchbald and Charlotte Turner Smith.

Facts
Place of Origin
Britain 1
Notable Example
Caleb Williams by William Godwin (1794) 1
Connections

Form Of Genre

The Novel, Genres
Sources
1. Jacobin novel (Wikipedia)
  • Overview
    Jacobin novels were written between 1780 and 1805 by British radicals who supported the ideals of the French Revolution.
  • Examples
    The Jacobin novel, most quintessentially represented in William Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794), attacked the established social and political order.
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