Popular Fiction by Women 1660-1730

This is the first twentieth-century collection of novels by women writers, 1660-1730, and includes lively fictions by all of the major writers of the period - Aphra Behn, Delarivire Manley, Jane Barker, Eliza Haywood, Mary Davys, and Elizabeth Singer Rower. In a variety of styles, their novels give us a sampling of the kinds of stories we still enjoy, and include romance, hardship overcome, seduction, rape, kidnapping, murder, political intrigue, and comic revenge. In addition to being a good read, they help fill out the early history of the English novel - as these women joined Daniel Defoe in being the most popular and successful novelists before Samuel Richardson.