Charlotte Turner Smith (1749-1806) is a significant English author and poet, and considered an influential member of the Romantic movement. Her work was subject of great praise from poet Sir Walter Scott. Notable works include her Elegiac Sonnets and other Essays (1784), Emmeline, the Orphan of the Castle (1788), Ethelinde, or the Recluse of the Lake (1789), and The Old Manor House (1793). The use of architecture such as castles and abbeys reflects the gothic influence in Smith's writing. Etheline features an orphaned female protagonist in an abbey, similar to Barford Abbey by Susannah Minifrie Gunning, published twenty years before Etheline. Charlotte Smith's novel was still an early example of the genre and contributed a bolder stance on the abbey's significance as a social symbol in England. Following the death of Etheline's parents, she is relocated to Grasmere Abbey to live with Mr. Maltravers. Lady Newenden, cousin of Etheline, directly berates Grasmere Abbey, calling it a "nunnery" where people go to die (Smith 281). The orphaned female protagonist trope is rather curious. It is unclear why Smith models Etheline so closely after Gunning's Fanny Warley, but abandonment seems to be a quality shared by the protagonists and abbeys themselves.

Keane, Angela. Revolutionary Women Writers : Charlotte Smith and Helen Maria Williams, Northcote House Pub, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.pointloma.idm.oclc.org/lib/pointloma-e....

Smith, Charlotte Turner. “From Charlotte Smith, ‘Ethelinde’ (London: T Cadell, 1789.’” Barford Abbey, by Susannah Minifrie Gunning et al., Broadview Press, 2020, pp. 267–281.