Clara Reeve facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Clara Reeve
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Portrait of Clara Reeve, c. 1770
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| Born | Clara Reeve 23 January 1729 Ipswich, England |
| Died | 3 December 1807 (aged 78) Ipswich, England |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Period | 1769–1802 |
| Notable works | The Old English Baron |
Clara Reeve (born January 23, 1729 – died December 3, 1807) was an English writer. She is most famous for her spooky novel, The Old English Baron, which came out in 1777. This book is a type of story called Gothic fiction, known for its mystery and suspense.
Clara Reeve also wrote an important book about the history of novels, called The Progress of Romance (1785). Her very first published work was a translation from Latin. Learning Latin was quite unusual for women in her time. She lived around the same time as the "bluestockings," a group of smart women who held discussions about books and ideas.
Contents
Clara Reeve's Life Story
Growing Up in Ipswich
Clara Reeve was born in Ipswich, England. She was one of eight children. Her father, Reverend William Reeve, was a church leader in several towns. Her mother's father was a goldsmith and jeweller for King George I. Clara's brother, Samuel Reeve, became a Vice-Admiral in the navy.
Clara Reeve once wrote about her father and her early life. She said her father was an "old Whig." This meant he supported a political group that believed in Parliament's power over the King. She learned a lot from him. He made her read about politics and history, even when she found it boring.
She read books like Rapin's History of England and Plutarch's Lives, which told stories about famous Greek and Roman people. She read these books when she was very young, which was unusual for girls and boys back then.
Her Writing Career
After her father passed away in 1755, Clara Reeve lived with her mother and sisters for a while. Later, she moved into her own home in Ipswich. Her first book was a translation of a Latin story called Argenis by John Barclay. She named her translation The Phoenix (1772). She was sad that this book was not very popular.
Clara Reeve wrote at least 24 books over 33 years. She wrote five novels. Only two of them, The Champion of Virtue and The Old English Baron (1777), became well-known. The Old English Baron was written to be similar to, or even a rival to, another famous Gothic novel called The Castle of Otranto. These two books are often printed together.
The first edition of The Old English Baron was dedicated to the daughter of Samuel Richardson, another famous writer. It is said that she helped Clara Reeve make changes and corrections to the book. The Old English Baron later influenced Mary Shelley's famous novel, Frankenstein (1818).
Clara Reeve also wrote The School for Widows (1791), which was a novel written as a series of letters. She then wrote Plans of Education (1792), which focused on how girls should be educated. Her book The Progress of Romance (1785) was a new kind of history book about novels. It showed how women writers like Elizabeth Rowe and Susannah Dobson were important. One story in this book even inspired a poem called Gebir.
Clara Reeve managed her own publishing work. This was quite unusual for women writers at the time, as many relied on male family members to deal with publishers.
Later Life and Death
Clara Reeve lived a quiet life. She did not leave behind many personal details. She died in Ipswich and was buried in the churchyard of St Stephen's, as she had wished. She was laid to rest next to her friend, Reverend Derby.
Her Impact on Literature
Clara Reeve's novel, The Old English Baron, was a big influence on Gothic fiction. It helped make this type of spooky story popular in universities and among everyday readers. Her book was written as a response to Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto. Another writer, Henrietta Mosse, even used The Old English Baron as a model for her own novel in 1808.
For a long time, scholars did not pay much attention to Reeve's The Progress of Romance. However, a scholar named Garry Kelly called it a "ground-breaking work of literary scholarship by a woman." He said it was important for being a history and defense of "romance" stories.
Clara Reeve helped Gothic fiction in two main ways. First, she made Gothic stories more imaginative by including supernatural elements, but she still kept them realistic. Second, she wanted to find a way to make fiction believable. She did not like how Horace Walpole mixed humor into his Gothic tales, as she felt it made them less scary.
In 1777, Reeve pointed out some of Walpole's exaggerated ideas:
a sword so large as to require an hundred men to lift it; a helmet that by its own weight forces a passage through a court-yard into an arched vault, big enough for a man to go through; a picture that walks out of its frame; a skeleton ghost in a hermit's cowl...
Clara Reeve wanted Gothic stories to feel more real and possible. This was a challenge for writers after The Old English Baron was published. It was hard to include supernatural events without them seeming silly or unbelievable.
Clara Reeve's Books
- The Phoenix (1772) – a shorter version of John Barclay's Argenis
- The Champion of Virtue (1777), later called The Old English Baron (1778)
- The Two Mentors: A Modern Story (1783)
- The School for Widows: A Novel (1785)
- The Progress of Romance (1785)
- The Exiles, or, Memoirs of the Count de Cronstadt (1788)
- Plans of Education (1792)
- The Memoirs of Sir Roger de Clarendon (1793)
- Destination, or, Memoirs of a Private Family (1799)
- Edwin, King of Northumberland: A Story of the Seventh Century (1802)
See also
