Charlotte Dacre: The Passions: A Novel in Four Parts (1811)

Countess Appollonia Zulmer – beautiful, rich, and popular – can have any man she wants, at least until she meets Count Wiemar. Interested only in submissive, uneducated and unworldly women, Wiemar rejects Appollonia in favour of Julia, a simple woman whose primary joy in life is to obey her husband’s will. Despondent and then furious, Appollonia vows revenge, becoming Julia’s intimate confidante, opening her eyes to the limitations of patriarchy, and convincing her that her growing feelings for Count Darlowitz, Wiemar’s best friend, are no crime. An epistolary novel about the destructive power of emotion, The Passions offers new insights into early feminism, romantic understandings of emotion and the sublime, and early nineteenth-century religious debates. It is an engrossing, powerful work of nineteenth-century literature, featuring one of the most memorable female villains of all time. Available to modern audiences for the first time, The Passions will engross literary scholars and casual readers alike.