Charlotte Lennox Books

Charlotte Lennox's epistolary novel "Euphemia" details the 12 year friendship of two separated friends; Euphemia Neville and Maria Harley. Separated by the Atlantic Ocean, each young heroine must learn to deal with her individual situation by trusting her own prudence, which is additionally supported by an endearing female friendship as revealed in the poignant letters exchanged between them. Typical 18th century novels end with a restoration of name, fortune, family, and ultimately in a marriage; symbolic of God's divine plan for humankind. The idea comes from the book of Revelation in which St John writes that the end of time will culiminate with a marriage between Christ and the earthly church. In Lennox's novel; however, the "marriage" or "restoration" is a restoration between two friends. The novel is different from other 18th century novels in that the conclusion validates the close bond between two women rather than a marriage between a man and a woman. This "novel" approach to ending a piece of fiction would allow for an expansion of literary ideas and motifs that would only complement and expand the vast writings of great 18th century writers like Lennox

The romance was the major form of literature from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Romances were epic tales full of heroism, adventure and chivalry, sometimes involving gods or legendary figures. After the Renaissance came a slow transition to shorter, less epic and less fantastic forms of literature to what we now appreciate as the "novel". By the mid-1700s, when Charlotte Lennox wrote The Female Quixote, romances were considered by many as dangerous. With a comparatively large literate population and books becoming easier to mass produce, romances lead credulous readers to think that the dream worlds of heroism and fantasy were true. Or so some thought.

The Female Quixote is the story of Arabella who has lived in seclusion all her life. With only her recluse father and a mountain of old romances as companions, Arabella grows up thinking that the world of her books is the world that she lives in. All is fine and good in her quiet abode until her uncle and cousins arrive and she is thrown into society. You can hardly imagine the trouble she gets into. Any man riding a horse is a probable ravisher. Any gardener with a literate accent is a man in disguise intending to carry her away. A small argument between two young men will no doubt turn into a bloody duel over the affections of a lady.

The story is bit sluggish at times, but always full of strange and funny episodes. Particularly funny is the history of Sir George, one of Arabella's many admirers. He recounts his life story (or what he wants Arabella to believe it is), complete with a dethroned Prince, bloody duels, imprisonment and multiple damsels in distress.

The Female Quixote is an amusing read that perhaps has applications to modern living. Has anyone ever told you that too much television will rot your brain? Or that trashy romance novels will give you wrong notions of relationships? Sit up and take note.

I loved reading this book. The heroine needed a butt whupping, really, that's what it boils down to. She had everything and was letting it go for her 2000 year old romance book collection. Finally, a Countess (who then had to bow out) and also a Reverend Doctor gave her a talking to and told her no more jumping into the river just because a man a mile away was riding a horse toward her! After that incident she had to finally see sense and apparently her eyes were also opened to the noble young man who was in love with her the whole time and took a whole lot of abuse from her. The ending was a bit abrupt but the flow and the feel of the story were way ahead of Jane Austen and Ann Radcliffe. And Lennox had subtle and imaginative incidents of bitchery and cunning worked into the story too. And a sword fight. Hooray for Charlotte Lennox, so sorry that she died without a penny, but her Arabella will live in infamy (the Female Coyote).

Written just over a 100 years after the publication of Cervantes' DON QUIXOTE, Charlotte Lennox's THE FEMALE QUIXOTE is interesting for several reasons, not the least of which being that it's a strong, intelligent narrative written BY an 18th century woman ABOUT an 18th century woman. Writing in a wry, humorous tone, Lennox penned a definitive anti-romance, deftly skewering most, if not all, of the pillars of that genre, and seemingly with great delight, never once leaving a doubt as to where she stood on such matters. Lennox intended to pen a delightful little didactic tale centering around the foolishness inherent in lettings one's imagination get the better of oneself, and in this she succeeded admirably. And yet, like the proverbial house, a narrative divided cannot stand, and to be sure, Lennox is working at cross-purposes in her novel. To the more cursory reader, she seems only to be writing a sort of `Dame Quixote;' skewing the mores of Cervantes' earlier novel towards a more female audience, but still drawing the same conclusions as he did about the absurdities inherent in their characters. A deeper reading, however, fleshes out instances within the narrative where Lennox seems to be actually SUPPORTIVE of her main character's quixotry. While on one hand, Lennox seems to be supporting the male patriarchal status quo by bending her Arabella (the female quixote of the title) to the dictates of society and behavior, on the other hand she seems quietly supportive of the power held by the fictitious princesses of Arabella's fancy, and thus Arabella herself. While Lennox's adherence to the former is obvious, and is the tack that she ultimately chooses to emphasize, her support of the latter is more difficult to root out, yet utterly unavoidable in any serious discussion of the work.

THE FEMALE QUIXOTE is not a story in celebration of some new dawn of the strong, intelligent woman. It is not a piece of nascent feminism in the style of a Jane Austen or a Charlotte Bronte, both of whom would pen their own takes on the female condition in the century following Lennox's. No, ultimately Lennox conforms THE FEMALE QUIXOTE to expected 18th century sociological mores, just as she conforms her character to those same mores when, at the hasty conclusion, she has Arabella drop her vision of reality and exchange it for the more socially acceptable value system shared by most characters in the novel. This conclusion is a particularly disappointing development because after pages upon pages of pitch-perfect, minute excoriation of popular romances, Lennox deflates her heroine in one chapter, and then hastily, and almost wholly without the wit which made the preceding chapters so interesting, gives her main characters an artless `happily-ever-after' and simply ends the novel. In her eleventh hour capitulation, Lennox turns her narrative upon itself, weakening its integrity to the point that when she finally gets to Arabella's moment of truth at the conclusion of the novel, she can do nothing but end it straight away before it collapses on itself, writing without any of the flair that characterized the rest of the story. Though Lennox' didactic debt is repaid in full by such an ending, it leaves her narrative in want and the more observant reader skeptical. It is sad to note that in a novel that started off so promisingly, Lennox ends up cheating not only her character and audience, but also any greater purpose the work could have had.

Alright, let's get it straight, this is an 18th century novel, not 17th, and while it is tedious at times, for the most part it's very charming and often made me laugh.
I understand that the ending is the "triumph of rationalism over idealism and romanticism," but frankly, I was a little disappointed at the abruptness of it. But who am I to criticize? This is an early novel, and the form hadn't quite been perfected yet, so there are a few loose ends and a large digression in book 6, which was the style of the time.
I recommend reading this with Rasselas, in which Johnson claims the realistic novel is as dangerous to youth as Lennox says of the romance in The Female Quixote.

Okay, so this story is'nt really very easy to read. Its from the 17th Century, but I did enjoy it. And part of the reason I'm writing this review, is because the reviewers on Amazon(for the most part), are missing the point of The Female Quixote. Its kind of ironic that Charlotte Lennox was crowned the first American Novelist, when she only lived in America for about 6yrs... Talk about depserate I guess. But not only are the Amazon reviewers missing the novels point, but also the person whom introduces the book in this edition.

I don't mean to give away the ending, but I studied this in my American Lit. Class at college for like 2weeks. It seems that by this ending we get a few things pointed out:

When Arabella is being talked to by the Doctor, he is giving her reasonable reasons as to why she is wrong. The others just told herit was silly, and in a way reinforcing her beliefs. But this Doctor is showing her why what she believes can't be true. And not only that, but by this ending we see that the females in these times had two options: 1. Be what we see as a Coquette, in Miss Glanville, excepting, unhappy marriage for money, and what society hands them, also is the case with Miss Groves, she has been impregnated twice, and in no inconvience to the man she hopes to marry, which will probrably be an unhappy one as well. She has chosen to rebel against society, and she is forced to live life in hiding. Why? Because doing anything besides doing what you are told to do, and marrying well, is considered abnormal.

Then on the other hand in Arabella's case, by the end of the book she has to options. 1. Admit one is wrong and go into Holy Matrimony with Mr. Glanville or 2. Continue on with her dillusions and most likely end up in a looney bin. Not much of a choice eh? So in a way, the ending and the book as a whole is showing us the choices that these woman had back then. We should be infinitely thankful. Because most woman back then, could not do much.

Someone said that this book was horrible because of the ending, and that it was nothing compared to the novels written a century later by Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. But believe that Charlotte Lennox probably inspired women to think of what their choices our and maybe try to change the way life was for them. Maybe she even inspired Bronte and Austen. Who knows? I love both Austen and Bronte, but I think that definitely Lennox was an important author as well. Credit should be given to where and whom it is do.

So I *hope* that unlike these other readers, you can gain some insight into the world the 17th century women through this book.

My hats off to Mrs. Lennox :D

God Bless & *Enjoy* ~Amy

This book's title grabbed my eye ages ago, but I had decided I should read "Don Quixote" before I read this. So I did, and I finally got back around to reading this book. I can say for certain now why one was a classic and this one is a bit lesser known. Part of my problem was the formatting of this, I'm guessing that Oxford kept it as close to the original as possible, the problem being that I haven't been trained to read like that. There were no quotation marks to differentiate between speakers (which could alternate within paragraphs) random words were capitalized, all proper names were italicized.

Getting onto the story, Arabella is a rich girl who's mother died when she was born and who's father indulged her, he too--dies. Leaving her alone except for her cousins and uncle. But they come on the scene a little too late, she now has taken all of the French Romances to be historical documents and a guideline for not just her behaviour but all humans. All men, in her mind, fall in love with her instantly and then are unable to control their love so they all want to carry her away. This got a little tedious to read, Because it really is everyman, her cousin and her uncle, her gardiner, her neighbor.

The whole book is dedicated to the social follys she makes with her romantic notions, there are several very interesting characters, her loyal maid Lucy, a potential lover Sir George and her poor in love with her cousin, Mr. Glanville (who's sister has a bit of a Caroline Bingley air to her). I do think this could be adapted admirably well into a Masterpeice Theatre type miniseries, or perhaps a stage play. And if that happens I would watch it, but I am certainly not going to go around reccomending anyone read this, unless they have read all of the books that Lennox has Arrabella refer to (Celicia, Cleopatra, etc) Perhaps if I had read those my appreciation would be greater, but I don't think I am willing to search them out as of now.