The Female Quixote

or, The Adventures of Arabella

Charlotte Lennox

• Publisher: Aeneas Press
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9785501022096
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

A girl raised alone with her father's library takes French heroic romance for a guide to life, and expects every man she meets to be a ravisher or a knight. Charlotte Lennox published it in 1752 with Johnson's help and Richardson's; it is the best English answer to "Don Quixote" and the funniest book of its decade. The cure at the end is administered by a doctor and is more troubling than the disease. Sixty plates of Gainsborough and Reynolds landscapes and portraits, from rocky coasts to Sterne, mirror a heroine who reads every face and shore as a scene from romance.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• The Female Quixote
• Chapter I. Contains a Turn at Court, Neither New nor Surprising. Some Useless Additions to a Fine Lady’s Education. The Bad Effects of a Whimsical Study, Which Some Will Say Is Borrowed from Cervantes
• Chapter II. Contains a Description of a Lady’s Dress, in Fashion Not Much Above Two Thousand Years Ago. The Beginning of an Adventure Which Seems to Promise a Great Deal
• Chapter III. In Which the Adventure Goes on After the Accustomed Manner
• Chapter IV. A Mistake, Which Produces No Great Consequences. An Extraordinary Comment Upon a Behaviour Natural Enough. An Instance of a Lady’s Compassion for Her Lover, Which the Reader May Possibly Think Not Very Compassionate
• Chapter V. In Which One Would Imagine the Adventure Concluded, but for a Promise That Something Else Is to Come
• Chapter VI. In Which the Adventure Is Really Concluded; Though, Possibly, Not as the Reader Expected
• Chapter VII. In Which Some Contradictions Are Very Happily Reconciled
• Chapter VIII. In Which a Mistake, in Point of Ceremony, Is Rectified
• Chapter IX. In Which a Lover Is Severely Punished for Faults Which the Reader Never Would Have Discovered, If He Had Not Been Told
• Chapter X. Contains Several Incidents, in Which the Reader Is Expected to Be Extremely Interested
• Chapter XI. In Which a Logical Argument Is Unseasonably Interrupted
• Chapter XII. In Which the Reader Will Find a Specimen of the True Pathetic, in a Speech of Oroondates. The Adventure of the Books
• Chapter XIII. The Adventure of the Books Continued
• Chapter I. In Which the Adventure of the Books Is Happily Concluded
• Chapter II. Which Contains a Very Natural Incident
• Chapter III. Which Treats of a Consolatory Visit, and Other Grave Matters
• Chapter IV. Which Contains Some Common Occurrences, but Placed in a New Light
• Chapter V. The History of Miss Groves, Interspersed with Some Very Curious Observations
• Chapter VI. Containing What a Judicious Reader Will Hardly Approve
• Chapter VII. Which Treats of the Olympic Games
• Chapter VIII. Which Concludes with an Excellent Moral Sentence
• Chapter IX. Containing Some Curious Anecdotes
• Chapter X. In Which Our Heroine Is Engaged in a Very Perilous Adventure
• Chapter XI. In Which the Lady Is Wonderfully Delivered
• Chapter I. Two Conversations, Out of Which the Reader May Pick Up a Great Deal
• Chapter II. A Solemn Interview
• Chapter III. In Which the Interview Is Ended, Not Much to the Lover’s Satisfaction, but Exactly Conformable to the Rules of Romance
• Chapter IV. In Which Our Heroine Is Greatly Disappointed
• Chapter V. Some Curious Instructions for Relating an History
• Chapter VI. A Very Heroic Chapter
• Chapter VII. In Which Our Heroine Is Suspected of Insensibility
• Chapter VIII. In Which We Hope the Reader Will Be Differently Affected
• Chapter I. In Which Our Heroine Discovers Her Knowledge in Astronomy
• Chapter II. In Which a Very Pleasing Conversation Is Left Unfinished
• Chapter III. Definition of Love and Beauty. The Necessary Qualities of a Hero and Heroine
• Chapter IV. In Which Our Heroine Is Engaged in a New Adventure
• Chapter V. Being a Chapter of Mistakes
• Chapter VI. In Which the Mistakes Are Continued
• Chapter VII. In Which the Mistakes Are Not Yet Cleared Up
• Chapter VIII. Which Contains Some Necessary Consequences of the Foregoing Mistakes. A Soliloquy on a Love-Letter
• Chapter IX. Containing a Love-Letter in the Heroic Style; with Some Occasional Reasonings by Lucy, Full of Wit and Simplicity
• Chapter I. A Dispute Very Learnedly Handled by Two Ladies, in Which the Reader May Take What Part He Pleases
• Chapter II
• Chapter III. In Which Our Heroine Is in Some Little Confusion
• Chapter IV
• Chapter V. In Which Will Be Found One of the Former Mistakes Pursued, and Another Cleared Up, to the Great Satisfaction of Two Persons; Among Whom the Reader, We Expect, Will Make a Third
• Chapter VI. Containing Some Account of Thalestris, Queen of the Amazons, with Other Curious Anecdotes
• Chapter I. Containing the Beginning of Sir George’s History; in Which the Ingenious Relator Has Exactly Copied the Style of Romance
• Chapter II. In Which Sir George, Continuing His Surprising History, Relates a Most Stupendous Instance of a Valour Only to Be Paralleled by That of the Great Oroondates, Caesareo, &C. &C. &C
• Chapter III. A Love Adventure, After the Romantic Taste
• Chapter IV. The Adventure Continued
• Chapter V. An Extraordinary Instance of Generosity in a Lover, Somewhat Resembling That of the Great Artaxerxes in Cassandra
• Chapter VI. In Which It Will Be Seen, That the Lady Is as Generous as Her Lover
• Chapter VII. Containing an Incident Full as Probable as Any in Scudery’s Romances
• Chapter VIII. A Single Combat Fought with Prodigious Valour, and Described with Amazing Accuracy
• Chapter IX. In Which the Reader Will Find a Description of a Beauty, in a Style Truly Sublime
• Chapter X. Wherein Sir George Concludes His History; Which Produces an Unexpected Effect
• Chapter XI. Containing Only a Few Inferences, Drawn from the Foregoing Chapters
• Chapter I. For the Shortness of Which the Length of the Next Shall Make Some Amends
• Chapter II. Not So Long as Was First Intended; but Contains, However, a Surprising Adventure on the Road
• Chapter III. Which Concludes with an Authentic Piece of History
• Chapter IV. In Which One of Our Heroine’s Whims Is Justified, by Some Others Full as Whimsical
• Chapter V. Containing Some Historical Anecdotes, the Truth of Which May Possibly Be Doubted, as They Are Not to Be Found in Any of the Historians
• Chapter VI. Which Contains Some Excellent Rules for Raillery
• Chapter VII. In Which the Author Condescends to Be Very Minute in the Description of Our Heroine’s Dress
• Chapter VIII. Some Reflections Very Fit, and Others Very Unfit, for an Assembly-Room
• Chapter IX. Being a Chapter of the Satirical Kind
• Chapter X. In Which Our Heroine Justifies Her Own Notions by Some Very Illustrious Examples
• Chapter XI. In Which Our Heroine, Being Mistaken Herself, Gives Occasion for a Great Many Other Mistakes
• Chapter XII. In Which Our Heroine Reconciles Herself to a Mortifying Incident, by Recollecting an Adventure in a Romance, Similar to Her Own
• Chapter XIII. In Which Our Heroine’s Extravagance Will Be Thought, Perhaps, to Be Carried to an Extravagant Length
• Chapter XIV. A Dialogue Between Arabella and Lucy, in Which the Latter Seems to Have the Advantage
• Chapter I. Contains the Conversation Referred to in the Last Chapter of the Preceding Book
• Chapter II. In Which Our Heroine, as We Presume, Shows Herself in Two Very Different Lights
• Chapter III. The Contrast Continued
• Chapter IV. In Which Mr. Glanville Makes an Unsuccessful Attempt Upon Arabella
• Chapter V. In Which Is Introduced a Very Singular Character
• Chapter VI. Containing Something Which at First Sight May Possibly Puzzle the Reader
• Chapter VII. In Which, If the Reader Has Not Anticipated It, He Will Find an Explanation of Some Seeming Inconsistencies in the Foregoing Chapter
• Chapter VIII. Which Concludes Book the Eighth
• Chapter I. In Which Is Related an Admirable Adventure
• Chapter II. Which Ends with a Very Unfavourable Prediction for Our Heroine
• Chapter III. In Which Arabella Meets with Another Admirable Adventure
• Chapter IV. In Which Is Related the History of the Princess of Gaul
• Chapter V. A Very Mysterious Chapter
• Chapter VI. Not Much Plainer Than the Former
• Chapter VII. Containing Indeed No Great Matters, but Being a Prelude to Greater
• Chapter VIII. Which Acquaints the Reader with Two Very Extraordinary Accidents
• Chapter IX. Which Will Be Found to Contain Information Absolutely Necessary for the Right Understanding of This History
• Chapter X. A Short Chapter Indeed, but Full of Matter
• Chapter XI. Being, In the Author’s Opinion, the Best Chapter in This History
• Chapter XII. In Which the History Is Concluded
• About the Author