Caroline Lamb, Ada Reis

Malcolm Paul Douglass (San Jose State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1823

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Ada Reis is Lady Caroline Lamb’s third and last novel. It was printed in 1823 by her friend, John Murray (also Lord Byron’s publisher through most of his life), and it is a curiously fantastic tale. The story is supposedly the partial translation of a text written in Arabic, Spanish, and Incan, found in the grave of Fiormonda, whose gravestone also bears the name of her father, Ada Reis.

Ada Reis is born in Georgia near the Black Sea and sold into bondage. Luckily, a kindly Genoese merchant purchases him and raises him as his son. The young man grows up impetuous, cunning, and an intemperate drinker. He boards a privateer, murders the captain (whose title is “Reis”), and declares himself a follower of Islam. …

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561 words

Citation: Douglass, Malcolm Paul. "Ada Reis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 October 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16598, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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