Thaddeus of Warsaw

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Thaddeus of Warsaw is an 1803 novel written by Jane Porter and originally published in four volumes. The novel concerns Thaddeus Sobieski, a gallant young soldier who serves in the Kościuszko Uprising against invading Russian forces. After Poland’s defeat, Thaddeus departs for London in search of his English father. The novel was a popular success, remaining in print throughout the nineteenth century.

Plot

The work is a hybrid: the first third relates developments and battles within Poland, the remainder of the book serves as a

English aristocracy.[2]

Reception

Thaddeus of Warsaw went through at least 84 editions,

Sobieski was the namesake of Thaddeus Lowe (b. 1832), the father of aerial reconnaissance in the United States, and Pembroke Somerset was the namesake of Pembroke, Kentucky (est. 1836).[7] Porter came to be so disregarded that the editor of an 1897 edition of Porter's diary took it for granted that her readers would not have heard of her and a 1905 edition of Thaddeus was published as part of a series on Half-Forgotten Books.[3]

It was thought by Olga S. Phillips (1940), author of Isaac Nathan's biography, that the character of Thaddeus was based on Nathan's father Menachem Mona Polack (Moses Monash the Pole) who was thought to be the illegitimate son of King Stanisław August Poniatowski and his Jewish mistress Elżbieta Szydłowska. Phillips claims that Jane Porter used to call Isaac Nathan 'Thaddeus' when touching his face as a child.

Author's fate

Despite the work's success, Porter was described as "totally destitute or nearly so", was obliged to circulate among her friends as a houseguest, and repeatedly petitioned the government for a literary pension (denied in part because she was unable to gather the support of other important literary figures[8]). This penury arose because the rights to Thaddeus and her other stories were – after protracted litigation – no longer held by Porter but belonged to her various publishers, including Owen Rees,[5] Richard Bentley, and George Virtue. Issuing "improved" and "corrected" versions with prefaces and other errata permitted her to keep some income from works.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b McMillan, Dorothy. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "Porter, Jane" Oxford Univ. Press (Oxford), 2004. Accessed 1 October 2013.
  2. ^ a b McLean, Thomas. "Nobody's Argument: Jane Porter and the Historical Novel". Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Fall–Winter, 2007), pp. 88–103. University of Pennsylvania Press. Accessed 26 September 2013.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4214-0022-8
    . Accessed 30 September 2013.
  4. ^ Laskowski, Maciej. "Jane Porter's Thaddeus of Warsaw as evidence of Polish–British relationships". Instytucie Filologii Angielskiej (Poznan), 2012. Accessed 26 September 2013.
  5. ^
    Lee, Elizabeth. Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 46. "Porter, Jane
    ". Smith, Elder, & Co. (London), 1885. Accessed 1 October 2013.
  6. ^ Town of Warsaw. "History of Warsaw". 2010. Accessed 26 September 2013.
  7. ^ Rennick, Robert. Kentucky Place Names, p. 229. University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1987. Accessed 1 Aug 2013.
  8. ^ Looser, p. 159.

External links

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