Thaddeus of Warsaw by Jane Porter

Jane Porter’s (1803, Thaddeus of Warsaw: A Novel. Edited by Thomas McLean and Ruth Knezevich. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP) historical romance tells the story of a young Polish nobleman, Thaddeus Sobieski, who fights alongside historical Polish soldier, Tadeusz Kościuszko, to protect Poland from Russian invaders. After Poland’s subjugation by the forces of Catherine the Great, Thaddeus must leave Poland to begin a fresh life in Britain. Impoverished and alone in London, Thaddeus encounters prejudice as a foreigner, but his courage and kindness bring him to the attention of a number of women who, in a surprising role reversal, attempt to woo him. He must also solve the mystery of his birth by discovering and confronting the British father who abandoned him. Porter’s four-volume novel evokes the sentimentality of works by Samuel Richardson or Frances Burney (see “Burney [later d’Arblay], Frances”), wherein a young woman must navigate the social challenges of the big city before uncovering the secret of her birth or finding true love. Porter’s hero, however, is both male and a foreigner. While there are amusing and exciting passages in the novel, the thrust of the plot suggests that Porter has deeper intentions: to offer a new model for British male behavior. Furthermore, by making that model an outsider, she exposes the hardships faced by immigrants in 1790s Britain.