Romance Readers and Romance Writers

Sarah Green is one of the lesser known authors from a period of great literary legacy, encompassing the likes of Austen, burney and Redclifle. Frequently satinzing their romantic and gothic work, she gained a reputation as an angry parodist within nineteenth century literature for her direct criticism of other authors style of work. Such unveiled attacks are highly atypical for a female writer of the era, and a clear challenge to the presumption of male literary authority.

This edition of Romance Readers and Romance Writers (1810) is the first modern scholarly publication of what is arguably her most famous novel. As with many of her other works. Green adopts numerous sophisticated methods to parody her contemporaries, most notably in the form of her heroine Peggy/Margaritta. Aside from such characters and the narrative itself. Green embellishes her story with a range of paratextual material such as chapter epigraphs and footnotes, allowing a blurring of the boundaries between fact and fiction.

Chawron House Library (www.chawron.org) is an independent research library and study centre which focuses on women's writing in English from 1600 to 1830. The library's main aim is to promote and facilitate study in the field of early women's writing. The novels in the series are by female authors and have been selected for their cultural significance. All texts are from the library's holdings and are reset, complete with extensive introductory matter and endnotes. The series will be of interest to scholars of women's studies, literature, theatre studies, the eighteenth century. Romanticism, travel writing, biography and political history.