Elizabeth Craven and her Oriental Plays
One of the prevalent fashions in literature in Elizabeth Craven's time was for the exotic. Along with the Gothic, it enjoyed a distinct vogue in the late Georgian period. People loved to read tales set in Turkey, Persia or Arabia, and Elizabeth Craven knew some of the most successful authors in this field. William Beckford, author of Vathek , was one of her friends - a very close friend indeed - and so was Anne-Marie Fauque de Vaucluse, a Frenchwoman who settled in England and wrote novels with titles such as Tales from the Seraglio and The Vizirs, or The Enchanted Labyrinth. A Tchoadar Unlike these writers, however, Elizabeth did actually visit the near East. She was a bold and adventurous traveller who saw far more of Europe and neighbouring countries than most other women of her time could expect to do, even if they were the wives of diplomats or merchants. She went as far afield as Russia, Turkey and Roman...