The Official Library of JP Brown

Author: Foster, Hannah Webster

Description:
The Coquette or, The History of Eliza Wharton is an epistolary novel by Mrs Hannah Webster Foster. It was published anonymously in 1797, and was not published under the author’s real name until 1866, 26 years after Webster’s death. It was one of the best-selling novels of its time and was reprinted eight times between 1824 and 1828. The novel is a fictionalized account of the story of Elizabeth Whitman, the daughter of a clergyman who died after giving birth to a stillborn, illegitimate child at a roadside tavern. Writers and preachers of the day blamed her demise on the fact that she read romance novels, which gave her improper ideas and turned her into a coquette. Foster responded with The Coquette, which provided a more sympathetic portrayal of Whitman and described the difficulties faced by middle-class women.