Guest, Charlotte

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INTRODUCTION Guest, Charlotte
BIOGRAPHY
SCHOLARSHIP
PUBLICATION LIST
GUEST TIMELINE
BIBLIOGRAPHY & incl. links to some useful sites.

* Linguist * Publisher * Translator * Educator * Philanthropist *
Ironmaster * Politician * Mother of 10 children * Famous Victorian collector *

Charlotte Guest (19 May 1812 – 15 January 1895)
aka Charlotte Bertie until her first marriage in 1833.
aka Charlotte Schreiber on her second marriage in 1855.

Charlotte Guest is a giant in the world of the Mabinogi.

She is the pioneering modern publisher of the Mabinogi, and its translator in the mid-19thC. Her bilingual Mabinogi first appeared in 1845, the final volume in a series of mediaeval Welsh tales under the title The Mabinogion. Guest published the series, and later editions, in both Welsh and English, in elaborately designed volumes, with facsimile sources, and her own extensive scholarly notes. She successfully promoted the work in Britain, Europe and America, as origin texts of European literature.

It is William Owen Pughe who holds the honour of first publishing some of the Mabinogi; in English translation 1795, 1802, and 1821. Guest was then the first to publish the complete work of ‘The Mabinogion’, in both Welsh and English; and to gain international recognition for it. She published the full Four Branches of the Mabinogi in 1845, as part of her series The Mabinogion 1838 -1845. Her wide ranging research, her elegant publications, and her promotion of them in international literary circles, brought these first British prose tales into the modern age as no small contributor to the modern Welsh cultural renaissance. Guest’s translation remained the foremost version of ‘The Mabinogion‘for a century.

The daughter of an English Earl, Charlotte Bertie married a wealthy Welsh ironmaster, John Josiah Guest. She was already a linguist in seven languages. She promptly learned Welsh and worked on translating mediaeval Welsh tales in her first few years of marriage. She was also an active partner in the Guest iron industry, a philanthropist and educator, a vigorous political campaigner, and later became a famous Victorian collector. While working on The Mabinogion series, and all the rest, she gave birth to and brought up ten children, albeit her great endeavours were supported by a large Victorian servant class.

1. 1838-1845: series of 7 volumes, bilingual.[1]Guest, Charlotte. 1838. The Mabinogion. 7 vols. Tonn Press, Llandovery, Wales; and Longmans, London; simultaneously. The first complete edition of The Mabinogion. Welsh and English texts, elaborately presented. The Four Branches of the Mabinogi were in the final 1845 volume.
2. 1849: 3 volumes set, bilingual.[2]Guest, Charlotte. 1849. The Mabinogion. Vol. 3 vols. Llandovery, Wales; and London; simultaneously.: Rees; and Longmans. Reduced by omitting the extensive source and facsimile texts, but similar presentation.
3. 1877: single volume, English translation only.[3]Guest, Charlotte. 1877. The Mabinogion. London: Quaritch. Similar presentation.
4. 1902: Everyman adopted the 1877 single volume English edition.[4]Guest, Charlotte. 1906. The Mabinogion. (Everyman). Everyman’s Library. London and NY.: J. M. Dent and Sons and E. P. Dutton. This remained the leading English text until the 1949 Jones and Jones version.[5]Jones, Gwyn and Jones, Thomas. 1949. The Mabinogion. Everyman. London: J. M. Dent. and it continues to be easily available today worlwide in both book form and online.[6]For example www.interfaith.org/celtic/mabinogion/

SYNONYMS

Charlotte Guest, Charlotte Schreiber, Schreiber

ALSO

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NOTES   [ + ]

1. ⇑ Guest, Charlotte. 1838. The Mabinogion. 7 vols. Tonn Press, Llandovery, Wales; and Longmans, London; simultaneously.
2. ⇑ Guest, Charlotte. 1849. The Mabinogion. Vol. 3 vols. Llandovery, Wales; and London; simultaneously.: Rees; and Longmans.
3. ⇑ Guest, Charlotte. 1877. The Mabinogion. London: Quaritch.
4. ⇑ Guest, Charlotte. 1906. The Mabinogion. (Everyman). Everyman’s Library. London and NY.: J. M. Dent and Sons and E. P. Dutton.
5. ⇑ Jones, Gwyn and Jones, Thomas. 1949. The Mabinogion. Everyman. London: J. M. Dent.
6. ⇑ For example www.interfaith.org/celtic/mabinogion/
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