Chawton House Library: Women's Novels
Confessions of the Nun of St Omer: by Charlotte Dacre
1st Edition
By Lucy Cogan
February 24, 2016
Charlotte Dacre’s debut novel Confessions of the Nun of St Omer (1805) was a bestseller in its day, launching the career of a woman who would go on to become one of the nineteenth century’s most notorious female novelists. The work tells the story of the wilful Cazire, who recounts her passionate ...
Malvina: by Sophie Cottin
1st Edition
By Marijn S. Kaplan
July 27, 2015
Often linked to the works of early Romanticism, Sophie Cottin's Malvina (1803) was a bestselling sentimental novel. First published in France, the English translation by Elizabeth Gunning – a prolific novelist in her own right – allowed Cottin’s book to achieve success internationally. This is the ...