Women Writers

The Female Quixote Volume II Is Now Available

Volume II of Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote is published today, completing the P-Wave Classics edition of one of the eighteenth century's most witty and intellectually provocative novels. As Arabella is taken out of her father's castle and into a society she has only ever read about, the comedy sharpens and the novel's most searching questions about imagination, independence and the cost of becoming sensible move to their celebrated resolution. Read More…

The Female Quixote, Volume II: Where Imagination Meets the World

Volume II of Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote brings Arabella out of seclusion and into an ever-widening collision with the society she has only ever read about. Published on 15 September, it completes a P-Wave Classics edition of one of the eighteenth century's most witty, surprising and intellectually provocative novels. Read More…

The Female Quixote Volume I Is Now Available

Volume I of Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote is now available in a restored two-volume edition from P-Wave Classics. Discover one of the eighteenth century's most original and thought-provoking heroines. Read More…

The Price of Becoming Sensible: Arabella's Cure in The Female Quixote

Arabella's cure appears to restore order and common sense. Yet The Female Quixote leaves open a more troubling question: what is lost when imagination yields to reality? Read More…

Arabella Refuses to Dress Properly: Clothing and Femininity in The Female Quixote

Arabella's clothes in The Female Quixote are beautiful, expensive, and entirely wrong. That is precisely the point. Read More…

Arabella Lives Inside Fiction: Reading, Reality and The Female Quixote

Arabella does not merely read romances, she lives inside them. Charlotte Lennox's novel explores how stories shape identity, perception, and our understanding of reality itself. Read More…

The Female Quixote Is Not a Female Don Quixote

Charlotte Lennox’s The Female Quixote is often described as a female version of Don Quixote. But Arabella’s romance-shaped imagination reveals something far stranger — and more unsettling — about the world around her. Read More…

The Coquette Is Published: A New P-Wave Classics Edition

The Coquette is published today in a new P-Wave Classics edition. Explore its themes, history and continuing relevance through our four-part essay series. Read More…

The Many Meanings of Eliza Wharton: Judgement and Reputation

How Eliza Wharton’s story in The Coquette has been judged and reinterpreted for over two centuries. A reflection on reputation, morality and the ongoing scrutiny of women’s lives. Read More…

Letters, Privacy and the Public Eye in The Coquette

How private letters shaped public reputation in The Coquette. A reflection on communication, judgement and the fragility of privacy then and now. Read More…

From Scandal to Story: How Elizabeth Whitman Became Eliza Wharton

The real-life tragedy behind The Coquette. How Elizabeth Whitman’s story became one of early America’s most enduring novels. Read More…

Reading The Coquette in 2026: reputation, restraint, and the limits of female freedom

Why does The Coquette still matter in 2026? A reflection on reputation, restraint and the limits of female freedom, then and now, as pre-orders open for a new P-Wave Classics edition. Read More…

“She is still being talked about”: Why The Coquette still matters

A fresh edition of Hannah Webster Foster’s landmark novel The Coquette, exploring freedom, judgement and reputation in early America. Featuring rare historical responses and new editorial insight. Read More…

Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dame Jilly Cooper

We remember Dame Jilly Cooper, a fearless and much-loved author whose wit, warmth and boldness lit up British literature. Her life reminds us how trailblazing it was—and still is—for women to write on their own terms. Read More…

Fashion, Drama and the Stories We Wear

The Oscars remind us that fashion is as dramatic as any film or novel. From couture to personal expression, books about fashion tell fascinating stories—what are your favourites? Read More…