Hartly House, Calcutta

271 Pages·2019·5.126 MB·English

by  Phebe Gibbes, Michael J. Franklin

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‘An entertaining account of Calcutta … I
These letters indeed are written with a degree B
of vivacity which renders them very amusing.’ B
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MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
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‘I saw the Nabob’s eyes, sparkling with admiration, fi xed on
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my face! … His state palanquin followed. Four pillars of
massy silver supported the top, which was actually encrusted H A RTLY
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with pearls and diamonds; and, instead of verandas, fi ne glass
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plates on every side, as well as the back and front, to shew his
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Mightiness’s person to the greatest advantage. … I would
have given the world on the instant to have been a Nabobess L HOUSE
and entitled to so magnifi cent a train. … I am dying, Arabella, Y ,
to have one of these very elephants at my command!’

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‘One of the earliest British novels of India … ’Excellent new edition of
C A LCUTTA
of a transcultural love affair between Gibbes’s novel ... Michael O
the heroine Sophia Goldborne and a young Franklin’s introduction
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Brahman. Although positively reviewed by and extensive notes are
Mary Wollstonecraft … it soon vanished both exemplary.’
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from literary history; only recently has it
PETER PARKER, TLS
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begun to arouse the interest of students
of eighteenth-century colonial literature. ‘This new edition, , c P H E B E G I B B E S c
[Franklin] has done a splendid job editing introduced, and heavily C
the novel, with a full introductory annotated by Michael
essay and explanatory notes … making it Franklin, should be A
available to researchers, students, and welcomed by both literary
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the general reader.’ scholars and historians.’
NIGEL LEASK, REGIUS PROFESSOR MAYA JASANOFF, C
OF ENGLISH, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS
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Michael J. Franklin is Professor Jacket illustration: William Hodges, Natives
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of English at Swansea University drawing Water from a Pond with Warren Hastings’
and has published widely upon House at Alipur in the Distance (1781). Private
representations of India collection. Reproduced by kind permission T
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EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk M I C H A E L J . F R A N K L I N
Hartly House, Calcutta
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Hartly House, Calcutta
Phebe Gibbes
Edited and with an Introduction by
Michael J. Franklin
Manchester University Press
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All editorial matter © Michael J. Franklin 2019
The right of Michael J. Franklin to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 5261 3437 0 paperback
First published by Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2006
This edition first published 2019
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for
any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does
not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or
appropriate.
Typeset by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
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For Caroline
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Contents
Acknowledgements page viii
Note on the text ix
Introduction xi
Hartly House, Calcutta 1
Explanatory notes 165
Select bibliography 210
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Acknowledgements
In preparing this edition I have used the printed materials and man-
uscript resources of the British Library; the National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth; the New York Public Library; the Beinecke Library at New
Haven; and the library of Swansea University. I am pleased to acknowl-
edge my gratitude to the helpful efficiency of the library staff at all these
institutions. Lastly I must record my thanks to Jennie Batchelor, Isobel
Grundy, Andrew Ashfield and David Hopkinson for communicating
the fruits of their valuable research with kindness and good humour.
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Note on the text
In the absence of any extant manuscript, the text of this edition is
based upon the first edition of Hartly House, Calcutta, published by
J. Dodsley, Pall-Mall, London in 1789 in three volumes octavo (BL
1425.b.16). A further edition, apparently pirated, appeared in Dublin
in the same year, printed for William Jones, in a single volume, duo-
decimo. A German translation, entitled Hartly haus, oder Schilderungen
des häuslichen und gesellschaftlichen Lebens in Ostindien, appeared in
Leipzig in 1791. Hartly House, Calcutta, subtitled ‘A Novel of the Days
of Warren Hastings’ and edited by John Macfarlane, was reprinted in
Calcutta by Thacker, Spink and Co. in 1908. It has also received three
modern reprints, one in Calcutta (Gupta Press) in 1984; the second,
edited by Monica Clough, from Pluto Press of London and Winchester,
Mass., in the bicentennial year of 1989; and my own edition from OUP
India in 2007.
The long ‘s’ has been modernized, and a few running quotation
marks in the left-hand margin have been eliminated. Obvious mis-
prints and errors of spelling, many of which were possibly the result
of the printer’s difficulties with the author’s handwriting, have been
silently corrected, but contemporary spellings (such as ‘chuse’ or
‘controul’) and idiosyncrasies of grammar and punctuation have been
retained for the sake of authenticity. Original spellings capable of
confusing the modern reader have been noted. The variant spellings of
the surname (‘Goldborne’, ‘Goldborn’, ‘Goldsborne’) present some-
thing of a problem. ‘Goldsborne’ appears most frequently and might
thus be thought to represent the authorial intention. I have, however,
preferred ‘Goldborne’ and used it throughout for two reasons: firstly
this spelling appears first in the novel and in capitals (arguably, if
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