Letters of a solitary wanderer (the title comes from Dr. Johnson) appeared first in three volumes, two more being added later from another publisher. These first three each contain an independent and contrasting romance, set in Gothic Yorkshire, Jamaica, and sixteenth-century France respectively. They are a development in kind from Smith's earlier novels, sharing for instance, as the title indicates, the theme of displacement. In his introduction Jonathan Wordsworth shows how they relate to Lewis, Radcliffe and Scott; and also how, two years after the publication of Lyrical ballads, there is a new concern for simplicity, naturalness and feeling.