The French invasion scare and the literature of fear in Britain, 1797-1805

Dr Ildiko Csengei will explore poetry, pamphlets, letters, diaries and caricatures responding to the French invasion scare in Britain in the 1790s and 1800s.

Focusing on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem ‘Fears in Solitude’, this talk will explore the ways in which feelings of fear, anxiety and terror were evoked at the prospect of a French invasion of Britain. Some pamphlets were funded by royalist associations to encourage volunteering among the masses, while others challenged this fearmongering.  

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