The Female Quixote (1752), a vivacious and ironical novel parodying the style of Cervantes, portrays the beautiful and aristocratic Arabella, whose passion for reading romances leads her into all manner of misunderstandings. Praised by Fielding, Richardson and Samuel Johnson, the book quickly established Charlotte Lennox as a foremost writer of the Novel of Sentiment. With an excellent introduction and full explanatory notes, this edition will be of particular interest to students of women's literature, and of the eighteenth-century novel.
Cervantes goza de un enorme protagonismo en la literatura británica del siglo XVIII. Su influencia se pone de manifiesto en Joseph Andrews, que Henry Fielding subtituló “Written in Imitation of the Manner of Cervantes”, y en producciones de autores como Tobias Smollett o Charlotte Lennox. La visión de la crítica cobra un valor significativo a mediados de siglo, con el nacimiento de The Monthly Review y The Critical Review que proporcionaban exámenes de novedades bibliográficas. En este trabajo se plantea el estudio de la huella cervantina en la novela británica a partir de las valoraciones críticas producidas por ambas publicaciones periódicas desde sus inicios hasta finales de siglo.
Manushag Powell revisits Frances Brooke’s Old Maid (1755-6) to highlight its understudied interest in theatrical performance and criticism. Brooke’s interest in the drama was lifelong, encompassing not only personal ambitions that were partly thwarted by her famous quarrels with David Garrick over her Virginia and his King Lear, but also her friendship and eventual partnership with the powerful actress-manager Mary Ann Yates, who was also a close friend of fellow pioneering periodicalist Charlotte Lennox. Brooke’s interest in the theatre predated and reached far beyond Garrick’s involvement. Ultimately, the essay champions the radical ambitions of Brooke’s periodical writing and theatrical criticism, and both recognises and laments the fact that an alliance of female professional artistry could be enabled by the theatre, but not yet by periodical writing.
Neste artigo, apresento uma interpretação feminista do romance The Female Quixote, de Charlotte Lennox, publicado em 1752. Em minha hipótese, Lennox responde às acusações de que romances são falsos e, por isso, repreensíveis, ao defender o gênero enquanto instrumento de crítica social e meio de transmissão e obtenção de conhecimentos das mulheres. Assim, ao mesmo tempo em que atribui valor ético, político e epistêmico a narrativas ficcionais, ela contribui também para uma reconceptualização dos conceitos de "verdadeiro" e "falso".
Miguel de Cervantes en The Monthly Review y The Critical Review: la prosa (1749-1800)
