The Spy Figure in British Radical Literature, 1790–1804Sincerity and Coded Language

Examines the spy figure in a selection of British radical writing from 1790–1804

• Examines the spy figure in a selection of British radical writing from 1790 to1804, the decade following the French Revolution (1789) to soon after the Peace of Amiens and renewed hostilities of war (1804)
• Draws on a wide range of historical documents including trial literature, newspaper articles, and letters from or about spies
• Connects the spy figure and surveillance to the use of literary encryption in radical writing of the 1790s
• Maps the correlation between surveillance and Romantic sincerity
• Applies current theories from Surveillance Studies to illuminate modes of encryption and concerns with the spy figure in the literary works

The book argues that literary authors who had initially supported the ideals of the French Revolution, became more coded and elliptical in their writing as a response to surveillance and repression in Britain in the 1790s. It shows that authors appropriated the tools of invisible state surveillance by using coded modes and methods, including pseudonymity, elision, satire, irony, innuendo, allegory and self-censorship, amongst others. These strategies were often used performatively to mock the spy figure and interrogate the encroaching culture of secrecy, silencing and suspicion; but also, as a precautionary measure to protect writers from laws against sedition and treason. Applying surveillance theory, the book provides accessible and illuminating readings of literary works by William Godwin, John Thelwall, Mary Robinson, Robert Bage, and William Blake.