'An Affair of the Heart'. Helen Maria Williams' Letters From France

Abstract

This bachelor thesis deals with the late 18th century writings by Helen Maria Williams on the French Revolution. Having experienced its many episodes firsthand, Williams gained both fame and notoriety in Great Britain because of her support for the revolution. Her first work, Letters Written in France (1790), described the revolution in sympathetic, even euforic, terms and was received well. However, with the dramatic increase of violence, the revolution lost supporters abroad, especially in Williams' native country. Although she emphatically opposed the Jacobin regime, Williams came under intense scrutiny, resulting to her becoming an intellectual exile. In this thesis the focus lies on her first work on the early revolution and later works on the Jacobin Terror, as well as on her reception in Great Britain.