Description
On 14th January 1798, Mary Robinson began to write down the story of her life. She was only 40, but had long been ill and wanted to set the record straight on a life lived in the public eye. But who was Mary Robinson? In her heyday, the most famous women in England.
As a young actress, she had caught the eye of a teenage Prince of Wales playing Perdita in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. She became notorious when she agreed to be his mistress. Spurned only months later, she spent decades in and out of the press – for her love life, her trend-setting, and increasingly, her writing. Although infamous, Mary Robinson pioneered celebrity status. She lit up the fashion world, sparking trends with her choice of outfit or new carriage.
Against the odds, she successfully reinvented herself as a writer, publishing 15 collections of poetry, 7 novels, as well as radical, political and feminist essays, and countless more works in newspapers and journals.
In recent decades, she has been reclaimed as one of the most important, and diverse, writers of the 18th century.
Unfolding through her own words, this exhibition traces the extraordinary journey of her scandalous, celebrated and literary life.
Curated and written by Emma Yandle (2024).