Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote

Alexis McQuigge (University of Regina)

Ed. by Daniel Cook, University of Dundee
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1752 - 1752

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Written in 1752, Charlotte Lennox’s second novel,

The Female Quixote

, engages with almost too many questions to count surrounding the development of the early novel. Featuring a young woman, Arabella, the titular Female Quixote who is raised reading only her deceased mother’s French romances, the novel emerges from deep within a debate on the transformative value of fiction and female education, reading habits, and morality. Readers familiar with French romances of the seventeenth century will easily recognize how Arabella’s behaviour mirrors those of Scudery's and La Calprenède's heroines, while those who are less familiar might struggle to see the textual connections but will still understand the height of Lennox’s satire against those early fictions. Having fled from court…

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2282 words

Citation: McQuigge, Alexis. "The Female Quixote". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 March 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38754, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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