Eighteenth-Century Women's Writing and the 'Scandalous Memoir'

This book contributes to the literary history of eighteenth-century womens life writings, particularly those labeled scandalous memoirs. It examines how the evolution of this subgenre was shaped partially by several innovative memoirs that have received only modest critical attention. Breashears argues that Madame de La Touches Apologie and her friend Lady Vanes Memoirs contributed to the crystallization of this sub-genre at mid-century, and that Lady Vanes collaboration with Tobias Smollett in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle resulted in a brilliant experiment in the relationship between gender and genre. It demonstrates that the Memoirs of Catherine Jemmat incorporated influential new strategies for self-justification in response to changing kinship priorities, and that Margaret Coghlans Memoirs introduced revolutionary themes that created a hybrid: the political scandalous memoir. This book will therefore appeal to scholarsinterested in life writing, womens history, genre theory, and eighteenth-century British literature.