Classics as souvenir: L.E.L. and the Annuals

Abstract

The literary annuals and gift books were a new publishing phenomenon in the early nineteenth century. Designed as souvenir Christmas presents, complete with sentimental poems, anthologisable prose extracts and attractive ‘embellishments’, the books catered specifically for a female readership and were symptomatic of the changes in literary taste in the period. While the subject matter of the anthologies was eclectic, a significant component, which has been neglected by literary historians and critics, was devoted to classical topics. This article considers this understudied area of nineteenth-century classical reception through a focus upon the work of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, known as L.E.L., who was one of the most celebrated and regular contributors to the annuals. As a commercially successful poet, L.E.L. offered a new commodified, feminine, and sentimental perception of the classical legacy. But, it is argued, her inclination towards cynicism and self-conscious belatedness – which has been termed an ‘Art of Disillusion’ – also produced a sophisticated and ironic comment on the place of classicism in the modern consumer age.