Novels Online: All Novels

A Peep at the Pilgrims  (Harriet Cheney)
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Agnes De-Courci: A Domestic Tale  (Anna Maria Bennett)
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An epistolary novel of manners and sentiment. The heroine, Agnes, embodies every perfection, but suffers nonetheless when she unknowingly marries her half brother. He commits suicide rather than live with the incestuous passion, and Agnes, mad with grief, dies a raving maniac (having leapt over the ha-ha). The prevailing message of the novel, indeed, is that the truly virtuous, like Agnes, are not meant for this world, and can attain their just rewards only in the afterlife.

Any Thing But What You Expect  (Jane Harvey)
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Ashton Priory  (Anonymous)
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Caroline; or, the Diversities of Fortune  (Anne Hughes)
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Cava of Toledo; or, the Gothic Princess  (Augusta Amelia Stuart )
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De Montmorency: A novel founded on a recent fact  (Anonymous)
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Drelincourt and Rodalvi; or, Memoirs of Two Noble Families: A Novel  (Elizabeth Byron [Strutt])
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A tale of tragic love, spanning the distance between England and Florence in Italy, the homes of Lord Drelincourt and of the Marchese di Rodalvi and his family respectively.

Francis, the Philanthropist: an unfashionable tale.  (Mrs. Johnson)
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Honoria Sommerville: A Novel  (Elizabeth and Jane Purbeck)
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'An entertaining, effective heroine's progress from foundling babyhood, via reunion with her mother (who had nurtured an unworthy changeling), to "that real happiness so seldom experienced by humanity" - though the good are sure of it hereafter' (Blain, p.879).

Isabella  (Frances Jacson)
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Lovers and Friends; or, Modern Attachments  (Anne Julie Kemble Hatton)
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Magdalen; or, the Penitent of Godstow  (Elizabeth Helme)
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Monmouth: A Tale, Founded on Historic Facts  (Anna Maria Mackenzie [Cox Johnson])
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'Monmouth, 1790, based on Restoration history, is perhaps her best work' (Blain, p.695).

Paris Lions and London Tigers.Paris Lions and London Tigers.  (Harriette Wilson)
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Rachel: A Tale  (Jane Taylor)
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A novel featuring an unexpectedly awkward and plain heroine. Rachel triumphs over her silly but beautiful cousin Sophia to gain the affections of the hero, Mr. Tompkins. Interestingly, the novel ends before hero and heroine declare their undying devotion. We are told: 'time alone can discover in whose possession he left his heart; but it is expected his next visit to E------ will ascertain the fact'.

Romance Readers and Romance Writers: A Satirical Novel  (Sarah Green)
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A brilliantly amusing burlesque noir, lampooning the absurdities and affectations of the contemporary novel. Having read too many romances, the heroine, Margaret, who prefers to be known as 'Magritta', is like Don Quixote in seeing romance and sensation in the most everyday situations: 'Margaret was sure her uncle's dwelling house had been a formidable castle, and that it was also haunted.' Of greatest interest, perhaps, is the thirty-two page prefatory 'Literary retrospection', which compares the 'good old romances of our ancestors, and those of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries', including discussion of such writers as T.J. Horsley Curteis ('intolerably dull and tiresome'); the 'horrid' novelist, Francis Lathom, whose productions 'tell sad tales of this gentleman's abilities'; Gregory Lewis; Charlotte Dacre ('absurb trash'); and Walter Scott, before he published novels. But the greatest ridicule is reserved for Joshua Pickersgill, who, mercifully, wrote only one novel, The Three Brothers, 1803.

(With acknowledgements to Brick Row Bookshop catalogue.)

Simple Facts; or, The History of an Orphan  (Mrs Matthews)
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The heroine rejects suitor after suitor, as she waits for her accepted lover, Charles Palmer, to return from India with a suitable fortune. Persecuted by family and friends, abducted and held captive by one over-zealous lover, Maria exhibits strength of mind and perfect virtue throughout the tale, finally reaping her reward on her lover's triumphant return.

Stella of the North, or the Foundling of the Ship  (Helen Craik)
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Substance and Shadow; or, the Fishermans Daughter of Brighton  (Anonymous)
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The Castle of Tynemouth. A Tale.  (Jane Harvey)
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"The Castle of Tynemouth, 1806, set in the fifteenth century, includes the narrow escape of a young woman who detests witchcraft from being burnt for it." (TFC, p497).

The Child of Mystery  (Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson)
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Sarah Wilkinson was a prolific writer of gothic novellas, but she attempted few full-length novels.

The Corinna of England, and a Heroine in the Shade: A Modern Romance  (Anonymous)
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'The Corinna of England has been variously and inconclusively attributed to Mrs. E. G. Bayfield, J. H. James and Mrs. E. M. Foster.'

The Curate and his Daughter; A Cornish Tale  (Elizabeth Isabella Spence)
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The Enchantress; or, Where Shall I Find Her? A Tale  (Mrs Martin)
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The attribution to Mrs Martin comes from a Minerva Library catalogue of 1814 (Blakey, p.198). A clever novel concerning the efforts of Sir Philip Desomeaux's quest for a wife. Sir Philip takes an extraordinarily practical approach to his search. The novel opens with an advertisement that he has placed in the newspaper, stating simply: 'A man wants a wife.' His practicality quickly gives way to romantic passion, however, upon his meeting with his 'Enchantress' - Miss Josepha Milward.

The History of Miss Sally Johnson; or, the Unfortunate Magdalen   (Anonymous)
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The Inhuman Stepmother; or the history of Miss Harriot Montague  (Anonymous)
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An endless tale of shipwrecks, priate attacks, and virtuous European women being sold as slaves to heathens. Harriot Montague's unsurpassed beauty and virtue win her the love of Leander. The serpentine plot leads them through many improbable adventures before finally depositing them in each other's waiting arms.

The Irish Guardian, or, Errors of Eccentricity  (Anna Maria Mackenzie [Cox Johnson])
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The Life of Charlotta Du Pont, an English lady; taken from her own memoirs  (Penelope Aubin)
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The Lord of Hardivyle, an historical legend of the fourteenth century   (Anonymous)
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The Monk and the Vine-dresser: or, The Emigrants of Bellesme.  (Anonymous)
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The Offspring of Fancy  (Anonymous)
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The Old Woman  (Mrs. Carver)
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The Parisian; or, Genuine anecdotes of distinguished and noble characters  (Mary Charlton)
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The Princess of Cleves. An Historical Novel  (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne La Fayette)
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The Reward of Virtue; or, The History of Miss Polly Graham  (Anonymous)
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The Unexpected Legacy: A Novel  (Rachel Hunter)
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An interesting Minerva Press novelist. Jane Austen knew her work, and laughed at it. After reading 'a most tiresome novel in eight volumes by a Mrs. Hunter, containing a story within a story, and in which the heroine was always in floods of tears,' Austen wrote a mock thank-you letter to her niece, Anna, in the style of Mrs Hunter. But. Hunter has since found more appreciative critics, and she is now considered noteworthy for her 'ingenious role-playing, critical prefaces and for entering as author among her characters' (Blain, p. 553). In the splendid facetious preface to The Unexpected Legacy, the fictitious author, Mrs Sedley, who also plays a leading role in the plot, has to defend novels from an eloquent attack by her male friend.

The Victim of Fancy   (Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins)
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The Village Coquette  (Anonymous)
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The Wife; or, Caroline Herbert  (Maria Susanna Cooper)
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A revision of Letters Between Emilia and Harriet, 1762. The overwhelming goodness of the heroine, Caroline Herbert, triumphs over fashionable vagaries, and restores the affections of a wandering husband. Some merciful relief from Mrs Herbert\'s severe virtue is to be found in the character of Miss Clara Woodford, a vivacious young lady who delights in exciting admiration, but who herself ends the novel vowing to become a pattern of virtue.

Things by their right names  (Frances Jacson)
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Three Weeks in the Downs, or Conjugal Fidelity Rewarded: exemplified in the narrative of Helen and Edmund   (Anonymous)
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Vicissitudes in Genteel Life  (Alethea Lewis)
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Villasantelle; or the Curious Impertinent  (Catherine Selden)
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Yamboo; or, the North American slave  (Anonymous)
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