Charlotte Dacre , born Charlotte King, was an English author of Gothic novels. Most references to her today are under the name Charlotte Dacre, but she first wrote under the pseudonym "Rosa Matilda", and later adopted a second pseudonym to tease and confuse her critics. She later became Charlotte Byrne upon her marriage to Nicholas Byrne.
Life
Dacre was one of three legitimate children of John King, born Jacob Rey, a Jewish moneylender of Portuguese Sephardicorigin, who was also a blackmailer and a radical political writer well-known in London society. Her father divorced her mother, Sarah King, under Jewish law in 1784 before setting up home with the dowager countess of Lanesborough. Dacre had a sister named Sophia and a brother named Charles. Charlotte Dacre married Nicholas Byrne, a widower, on 1 July 1815. She already had three children with him: William Pitt Byrne, Charles and Mary. He was an editor and future partner of London's The Morning Post newspaper where the author Mary Robinson was the poetry editor and an influence on a young Charlotte Dacre who began her writing career by contributing poems to the Morning Post under the pseudonym "Rosa Matilda."
Work
As a romance novelist, Dacre cast heroines in a way quite different from the norm of the early 19th century that called for ladies of decorum and good taste. Her style was more like that of the male authors of her era, creating aggressive and often physically violent female characters who demonstrate powerful sexual desires and ambition. Dacre usually constructed this behaviour in a way that can be at least in part justified by the actions of others. Of her four major novels, Zofloya is the best known today, and sold well on its release in 1806; it was translated into both German and French. In this story, a female character stalks, brutally attacks, and then murders a girl whom she sees as a sexual rival. Yet, despite the brutality, the story relates an underlying moral message that young women should beware the dangers of lust.
Influence
In the literary world, Charlotte Dacre has remained in virtual obscurity for nearly two centuries. However, her work was admired by some of the literary giants of her day and her novels influenced Percy Bysshe Shelley who thought highly of her style and creative skills. She is believed to be one of the numerous targets of Lord Byron's satirical poemEnglish Bards and Scotch Reviewers, mentioned in the lines:
