Review: The Libertine

The Libertine by Charlotte Dacre

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This novel was originally published in 1807. The author, Charlotte Dacre, was a recognized author of Gothic fiction and Della Cruscan poetry. This edition is a reprint of the first edition; it is literally a photocopy of those pages rebound and reprinted in the 1970s as a part of the Gothic Novels series by Devendra P. Varma. Despite its strong ties to the Gothic, there is very little in this book that is actually Gothic.

The Libertine opens with the story of Montmorency, who, having lost almost all his fortune in gambling, retreated with his small daughter, Gabrielle, to Switzerland. There, in the remote mountains, he believed he could raise her away from the temptations of society. However, society was destined to find them in the form of Angelo. Welcomed into their home as a lost traveler, Angelo overstays his welcome and seduces Gabrielle. He genuinely adores her, but he decides to return to Naples regardless. Only after he leaves does Gabrielle realize that she's pregnant. In the first of a long series of tragedies resulting from the seduction, Montmorency loses his mind in grief when he realizes that his daughter is pregnant. Gabrielle gives birth to Agnes on the very day that her father dies. Throughout her pregnancy, she had only written one letter to Angelo, and she'd sent it before she realized the truth of her condition. He did not respond, since he was distracted by society, and Gabrielle never wrote him again. However, after her daughter is born, Gabrielle decides that she must journey to Naples in order to find Angelo and inform him of his duty as a father. Having borne a daughter, Gabrielle is all too aware of the fate of a girl raised without the protection of a father or a father's name.

In Naples, Gabrielle poses as a male servant, even dying her skin. She works for Angelo, and even helps him to in his affair with another woman. As she sees both his devotion to Oriana and his disregard for the woman, Gabrielle realizes that Angelo will never respect a woman that gave herself to him without a wedding. In despair, Gabrielle finds herself in a position where the only things that matter to her are her daughter's fate and Angelo's happiness.

This is a four volume novel, and that summary doesn't even encompass the first two volumes. In some ways, this novel does read like a Gothic in its condemnation of sin and its extreme violence. However, it is also a novel with close ties to the sensation fiction that would appear in the late nineteenth century. Dacre constantly focuses on the emotion of her characters, on their despair and heartache. Reading this book inspires an emotional response in much the same way that sensation fiction did in later readers. As with that later genre, it details the crimes of present-day characters. Using Dacre's references to philosophers as a guide, it would seem that this novel was written in a contemporary setting, unlike her more traditional Gothics, Zofloya and The Confessions of the Nun of St. Omer. Also, this book is entirely lacking in any supernatural element--explained or otherwise. If it were not written by Dacre, I'm not sure that it would even be considered a Gothic. It might have been considered a late sentimental novel, or even an attempt at realism.

The book itself is occasionally difficult to read. Dacre is well known for her excesses of language, her neologisms like "enhorrored." At times, I was thrilled when characters died, if only because it meant an end to their death scenes.

As with Zofloya, Dacre does try to create a moral for this work. In that other work, she examines the question of nature vs. nurture and whether a mother's example could have saved Victoria from her own dark nature. In this book, Dacre doesn't present questions. Instead, she baldly states that the institution of marriage was created to strengthen society and the bonds between individuals. When marriage is disregarded, and sexual relations occur without that holy bond, chaos results. The sins of the parents will be punished through their children. Here, Angelo and Gabrielle's unhallowed union brings about the deaths of at least three people and results in madness for two others. (Those totals do not include Gabrielle and Angelo, either!)

Dacre's moral is complicated by her biography. It is well established that she had three children prior to her marriage to their father, Nicholas Byrne. Dacre's father was a well known radical named Jacob Rey. He divorced Dacre's mother and married a countess, changing his name to Jonathon King. In addition to the divorce, he was involved in other scandals and was called "the Jew King." Several recent scholars have focused on Dacre's relationship to her father and his faith, which she seems to have rejected. After her marriage, all of her children were baptized into the Church of England. With this history of divorce, of rejected Jewishness, and extramarital childbirth, Dacre's moralizing is suspect. While she may have condemned extramarital sexual relations in her writing, she was also condemning the life she led.

Most of Dacre's work has long been forgotten. Zofloya has enjoyed increased critical attention in recent years. Now that scholars have rediscovered that work, they need to enlarge their focus and discuss her other works as well.



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