Ethelinde, or the Recluse of the Lake. In five volumes. Volume 2

The tone of Charlotte Smith's first published book of poems, Elegiac Sonnets, reflects the sadness of her life. The wife of an abusive debtor, with twelve children and few possibilities for independence, she turned to writing as a way to support herself and separate from her husband. By the 1780s she enjoyed success as a novelist, poet, and children's writer. Coleridge was significantly influenced by her sonnets, drawing from them the form and laws of the English sonnet.