The Female Quixote

First published in 1752, Charlotte Lennox’s The Female Quixote; or, The Adventures of Arabella stands among the most original and intellectually engaging novels of the eighteenth century. Both a brilliant comic work and a serious reflection on the power of reading, it explores how imagination, shaped by books, can both liberate and unsettle the individual within society.

At its centre is Arabella, the daughter of a marquess, whose understanding of life and love has been formed by the heroic romances of seventeenth-century France. Convinced that the world operates according to their codes of honour, devotion and adventure, she interprets her surroundings through their logic, often with unexpected and revealing consequences.

Restored here to its original two-volume form, this P-Wave Classics edition presents a carefully established text based on the first edition of 1752, with modernised spelling for clarity. The edition includes a biographical introduction, a critical introduction to the novel, and original editorial material designed to situate Lennox’s work within its literary and cultural context.

A substantial accompanying essay, The World of French Romance, together with a detailed Glossary of the Romance World, offers readers a guide to the now distant but once deeply influential literary tradition that shaped Arabella’s imagination. These materials are intended to recreate, for the modern reader, something of the familiarity Lennox’s contemporaries would have had with a body of literature that was already beginning to appear curiously old-fashioned in her own time.

At once witty, perceptive, and subtly radical, The Female Quixote remains a landmark in the development of the English novel, and a profound exploration of the relationship between fiction and reality.

Volume I — Published June 2026

• The opening volume of the original, together the Biographical Introduction, Editorial Note, an essay on The World of French Romance, and a detailed Glossary of the Romance World, offering readers a rich guide to the literary universe that shaped Arabella’s mind.
• Paperback, 326 pp., £14.99 (ISBN 9781916937345)
• Ebook £4.99 (ISBN 9781916937352)

Volume II — Published September 2026

• The concluding volume of the original.
• Paperback, 360 pp., £14.99 (ISBN 9781916937406)
• Ebook £4.99 (ISBN 9781916937413)

Our classics are produced as comfortable reading editions, with compact A-format paperbacks, readable type, standard paperback paper and, where appropriate, the original volume structure restored. They are designed to make classic literature feel fresh, accessible and a pleasure to read.

Find out how P-Wave Classics are published as books to be read today, not monuments to be endured.

Charlotte Lennox (c.1729–1804) was an English novelist, critic, and translator whose work was admired by leading literary figures including Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Born in Gibraltar and raised in England, she supported herself through a wide-ranging literary career that included poetry, fiction, translation, and criticism. Her best-known novel, The Female Quixote (1752), is a witty and perceptive exploration of reading, imagination, and women’s education. Long neglected, Lennox is now recognised as a central figure in the development of the English novel.

L. A. Davenport, born in Cork, Ireland, in 1973, is a novelist and short story writer whose works include The Nucleus of Reality, Escape, and No Way Home. A graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he brings extensive experience in medical journalism to his insightful and engaging fiction and non-fiction.

Learn more about L. A. Davenport and his writing at Pushing the Wave.