Mary Charlton

Mary Charlton (fl. 1794–1824), Gothic novelist and translator, was a "leading light" at the Minerva Press. Work Mary Charlton was a prolific novelist and translator for the popular Minerva Press, to the extent that publisher William Lane named her in sixth place on his list of "particular and favourite Authors" in his prospectus. Although the Press was frequently seen as low-brow and even disreputable, Charlton herself seems to have often received solid reviews: the Critical Review described Andronica as "interesting and amusing" and the Anti-Jacobin refers to the "elegant satire and delicate irony" of Rosella. Rosella is "a satire on novel-reading" and her other novels contain "socially critical" elements alongside the Gothic. At least two of her novels, Rosella and The Pirate of Naples, were translated into French and published in Paris, and several of her works went into second editions. Life Despite her professional success, next to nothing is known of her life. She is one of the "lost" women writers listed in Dale Spender's Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen (1986). Bibliography