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Sophia

The first novel to be written for serial publication by a major female author, Sophia follows the story of two siblings, the virtuous and well-read eponymous heroine and her flighty and coquettish sister. While the latter leads a vapid life in the fashionable world of London, the former flees from a potential seducer to the…

Euphemia

Charlotte Lennox’s Euphemia, published in 1790 at the end of her professional career, is an extraordinary account of pre-Revolutionary America from a woman’s perspective. Constructed from letters between Euphemia Neville and her friend Maria Harley, the novel tells the story of Euphemia’s marriage to a thoughtless, arrogant man. During the years Euphemia lives in New…

Restoration and 18th-Century Literature

RESTORATION AND 18TH-CENTURY LITERATURE Paper Bodies: A Margaret Cavendish Reader (1660s) Bell in Campo and The Sociable Companions (1662) Margaret Cavendish Sociable Letters (1664) Margaret Cavendish The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World (1666) Margaret Cavendish Grounds of Natural Philosophy (1668) Margaret Cavendish The Rover, second edition (1677) Aphra Behn Oroonoko (1688)…

Evelina

The reputation of Frances Burney (1752-1840) was largely established with her first novel, Evelina. Published anonymously in 1778, it is an epistolary account of a sheltered young woman’s entrance into society and her experience of family. Its comedy ranges from the violent practical joking reminiscent of Smollett’s fiction to witty repartee that influenced Austen. The…

Waverley

Sir Walter Scott’s first novel, Waverley enjoyed tremendous popularity upon its first publication. The novel is set during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, which sought to restore Charles Edward Stuart to the British throne. It portrays the doomed rising from the perspective of the hero, Edward Waverley, who travels to Scotland and is drawn to…