The Female Quixote

The Female Quixote is a book by Scottish novelist Charlotte Lennox, first published in 1752. It tells the story of Arabella, a young woman who has been brought up by her widowed father in a remote English castle and is expected, upon her father's death, to marry her cousin Glanville in order to keep her part of the estate. Arabella however has other ideas - fascinated by the many French romance novels she reads, she believes that real life should (and will) feature the same adventures and romances that the books do. Glanville, concerned at her mistaken ideas, continues to love her, while his friend Sir George Bellmour tries to court her using the chivalric ways that she has read about in her books.

Praised by such contemporaries as Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, and Samuel Johnson, the book was also used as a model by Jane Austin in her book Northanger Abbey.