Chawton House Library: Women's Novels: Translations and Continuations (PDF)

This edition connects four female writers from two different countries, presenting the English translations of two of the most popular eighteenth-century French novels and a sequel to one of them. Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni (1713-92) was an immensely popular author. Her 1759 epistolary novel Lettres de Milady Juliette Catesby a Milady Henriette Campley, son amie became a sensational bestseller. Riccoboni's plot centres on a young widow named Juliette Catesby whose fiance disappears and eventually marries someone else. Before the inevitable happy ending, Juliette relates this story's twists and turns in letters to her friend Henriette. Translated in 1760 by Frances Brooke (1724-89), it was a great success in England and established Riccoboni's reputation. Brooke went on to publish her own first novel in 1763, the successful History of Lady Julia Mandeville, indicating that it had been written 'by the translator of Lady Catesby's letters'. Franoise de Graffigny (1695-1758) wrote one epistolary novel, entitled Lettres d'une Pruvienne which became a bestseller in France. Set during the Spanish conquest of Peru, a princess named Zilia is kidnapped and taken to France. She writes letters of love and longing to her fianc Aza about her experiences. Although Aza eventually abandons Zilia, she refuses to marry her French captor and instead chooses to become an author and to live alone. Graffigny's contemporaries were so dissatisfied with this feminist ending that they rewrote it repeatedly. In 1774 Graffigny's novel appeared in English translation by Miss Roberts (c.1730-88). Roberts followed this with her own sequel, Letters to and from a Peruvian Princess, which continues Graffigny's plot, resolving it in a more conformist, but nevertheless surprising, manner.