Early Novels Digital Collection

About the collection

This repository brings together Fulltext and PDFs from Print at Penn's Digital Collection of British & American Fiction, 1660-1830 and corresponding metadata produced by the Early Novels Dataset.

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries' Collection of British & American Fiction, 1660-1830 (CBAF) numbers nearly three thousand works that together form a rich teaching and research collection of early fiction in English. While drawing from the general Rare Books Collection as well as several smaller named collections, its core is the Singer-Mendenhall Collection, built through the combined efforts of a University of Pennsylvania graduate student and professor in the first half of the twentieth century. Godfrey F. Singer and John C. Mendenhall each accumulated working collections of mainly epistolary fiction; Singer's parents donated his books to the University of Pennsylvania Library after his death in 1934, and Mendenhall added his library in 1950. Augmented over the years by other curators and donors, the Singer-Mendenhall Collection is a remarkably comprehensive body for studying the novel in English.

Curation process

The digital corpus presented here, curated by Alice Tweedy McGrath and Lindsay Van Tine, represents a varied cross-section of eighteenth-century epistolary fiction in English, following in the eclectic spirit of the archive from which it is drawn. As collectors, Singer and Mendenhall aimed at breadth; they sought not only early editions by well-known authors like Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding but also obscure and anonymous titles gleaned from bookseller’s advertisements, circulating library catalogues, and even more spurious sources like the title list accompanying George Coleman's Farce Polly Honeycombe: A Dramatick Novel of One Act (1760), which lampoons impressionable novel readers.

In choosing works to digitize we have also set our sights beyond the canon to unique and lesser-known titles. Twenty-five titles are here available to researchers in digital form for the first time, including many unique works such as The Labyrinths of Life (1791) and Letters from Clara: or, the Effusions of the Heart (1771). A further eleven represent unique editions of titles such as The Wreath of Friendship, or a Return from India (1790) and Eliza Haywood's Love in Excess: or, the Fatal Enquiry (1721). The remaining titles include lesser-known epistolary novels by anonymous or women authors and epistolary collections published before 1740, most of which are not freely available online.

By prioritizing works that remain anonymous, we hope to further expand the archive of eighteenth-century texts available. While much eighteenth-century fiction was published anonymously, many popular titles have since -- over decades or centuries of being reprinted, read, and re-collected -- attached themselves to a named author. Over time, as authorship became an increasingly important factor in conferring literary value, the existence of such a name might both indicate and perpetuate temporal endurance.

Among the many anonymous works in the collection, we chose a subset of titles that specify author gender without specifying name. Works such as The Mutability of Human Life (1777) and The Prude (1724), published with the author attributions of “a lady” and “a young lady" (respectively), might offer fodder for considering not only practices of authorial naming but also the common trend of associating the epistolary novel with women readers and writers. In The Denouement: or, the History of Lady Louisa Wingrove (1781) the anonymous author describes herself as "another pen in petticoats" and delights in her own anonymity; other unnamed "ladies" such as The Maiden Aunt (1776) and The Example: or the History of Lucy Cleveland (1779) also offer facetious or sincere prefatory apologies for publishing while female.

The works in this collection offer a sample glimpse of a genre in a state of flux and self-justification. Many of these works contain in their front matter preliminary paratexts in which authors reflect upon the increasing ubiquity of novels, or attempt to distinguish their work from the mass of newly-published fiction. The dedication to Frederick and Alicia (1791) laments that that “novels are become in general (perhaps through their multitude) insipid, and scarcely fit for perusal,” and hopes for better reception from the dedicatee. The never-before-digitized Constantia and her daughter Julia (1769) takes the opposite tack: the prefatory “Discourse on Romances” defends the genre of ‘romance’ by claiming that history is yet more absurd and less interesting, though another piece of front matter claims that it is a story based on fact.

Though prose fiction was "rising" in prestige through the middle decades of the eighteenth-century, the word "novel" on a title page still proclaimed belonging to a dubious category. A substantial number of these titles (published in the 1760s and 1770s) include the word "novel". Many others -- including titles which are unique copies -- were published by proprietors of circulating libraries such as Francis and John Noble, Thomas Lowndes, and William Lane. Scholars have noted the importance of these institutions in the development of the novel marketplace as well as their centrality within public discourses that decried novels as a corrupting influence. Both factors -- and possibly female authorship as well -- may have conferred genre legibility without conferring prestige: while they represent important strands of the market for epistolary fiction, few have endured in reprints or on syllabi. We hope that making this collection of titles available for reading and text analysis will open up possibilities for the study of prose fiction in all its idiosyncrasies.

Files

Page images for each title are available through Penn Libraries' Print at Penn Digital Collection. This repository includes full-text surrogates and Early Novels Dataset metadata (in individual MARC XML records and tabular form) for each file. You can also access OCRed PDFs for each title through our Box folder. PDFs and text files have been generated through Abbyy FineReader using a recognition pattern hand-trained on this corpus to read eighteenth-century letter forms. The text files have been further remediated using a customized set of rules and Ted Underwood’s OCR normalizer.

Titles

• A pacquet from Will's: or, a new collection of original letters on several subjects; (1701) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• *The perfidious P--- being letters from a nobleman to two ladies, under the borrow'd names of Corydon, Clarinda & Lucina. With the ladies answers. (1702) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Letters from the living to the living, relating to the present transactions both publick and private. (1703) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• A new voyage to the island of fools (1713) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Love-letters from King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn (1714) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The secret history of the Prince of the Nazarenes and two turks : (1719) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The post-man robb'd of his mail: or the packet broke open. Being a collection of micellaneous letters, serious and comical, amorous and gallant. (1719) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The Platonic lovers; consisting of original letters, in prose and verse, that pass'd between an English lady, and an English gentleman in France, under the borrow'd names of Clio and Strephon (1720) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Miscellanea aurea: (1720) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Love in excess; or, the fatal enquiry, a novel. Part the first. By Mrs. Haywood. (1721) | Images | Text | [PDF] | Metadata

• Love-letters between a certain late nobleman and the famous Mr. Wilson : (1723) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Love upon tick: or, implicit gallantry. Exemplified, in some merry memoirs of the rise and progress of an extraordinary and occasional amour. In which the whole mechanism of that passion is expos'd, and made obvious to the meanest capacity. (1724) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The prude : (1724) | Images | Text | [PDF] | Metadata

• The genuine letters of Mary Queen of Scotts (1726) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The Brothers, or, Treachery punish'd : (1730) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Secret memoris of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell (1732) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The unnatural mother, or, Innocent love persecuted : (1734) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The unfortunate dutchess: or, the lucky gamester. A novel, founded on a true story. (1739) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Memoirs of an unfortunate young nobleman, &c. (1743) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Familiar letters between the principal characters in David Simple, and some others. To which is added, a vision. By the author of David Simple. In two volumes. Vol. I. (1747) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Peregrinations of Jeremiah Grant, Esq; A west Indian. (1763) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The faithful fugitives: or, adventures of Miss Teresa M---. In a series of letters to a friend. (1766) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The history of Miss Pittborough. In a series of letters. By a lady. In two volumes. (1767) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The triumph of love and beauty; or, the history of Mr. Wallace and his family (1768) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The happy extravagant (1768) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The woman of honor. In three volumes. ... (1768) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The new Clarissa: a true history. By Madame de Beaumont. ... (1769) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The modern wife. A novel. In two volumes. The second edition. Vol. I. (1769) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The history of Miss Sommervile. Written by a lady. In two volume. Vol. I. (1769) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Constantia and her daughter Julia, an Italian history; With a discourse on romances (1769) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The history of Eliza Musgrove. In two volumes. ... (1770) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The history of Miss Harriot Montague. In two volumes. ... (1770) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The mistakes of the heart: or, memoirs of Lady Carolina Pelham and Lady Victoria Nevil. In a series of letters. Published by M. Treyssac de Vergy, ... In three volumes. ... (1770) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The palinode: or, the triumphs of virtue over love: a sentimental novel. ... By Mr. Treyssac de Vergy. ... (1770) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Anecdotes of a convent. By the author of Memoirs of Mrs. Williams. In three volumes. Vol. I. (1771) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Letters from Clara: or, the effusions of the heart. ... (1771) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The old maid; or, history of Miss Ravensworth. In a series of letters. By Mrs. Skinn, late Miss Masterman, of York. In three volumes. Volume the first. (1771) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Female frailty; or, the history of Miss Wroughton. Vol. I. (1772) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The history of Miss Lucinda Courtney; in a series of original letters; written by herself, to her friend Miss Constantia Bellmour. A new edition. In three volumes. ... (1773) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Letters from Felicia to Charlotte; containing a series of the most interesting events, interspersed with moral reflections; chiefly tending to prove that the seeds of virtue are implanted in the mind of every reasonable being. (1773) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The royal adventurers; or, the conflict of love. A novel. (1773) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The cautious lover; or, the history of Lord Woburn. By a young gentleman of Oxford. In two volumes. ... (1773) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The journey to London: or, the history of the Selby-family. ... (1774) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The trinket. A novel. By a lady. (1774) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The delicate distress: a novel. In letters. In two volumes. By Frances. ... (1775) | Images | Text .txt | PDF | Metadata

• The maiden aunt. Written by a lady. In three volumes. Vol. I. (1776) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The school for husbands. Written by a lady. In two volumes. Vol. I. (1776) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The mutability of human life; or memoirs of Adelaide, Marchioness of Melville. By a lady. In two volumes. Vol. I. (1777) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The Example, or The history of Lucy Cleveland. (1778) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Charles; or, the history of a young baronet and a lady of quality. A novel. In two volumes. ... (1779) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The hermit of the rock: or the history of the Marchioness de Lausanne, and the Comte de Luzy. Translated from a French manuscript. In three volumes. ... (1779) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Coxheath-Camp: a novel. In a series of letters. By a lady. In two volumes. (1779) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The unfortunate union: or, the test of virtue. A story founded on facts, and calculated to promote the cause of virtue in younger minds. Written by a lady. (1779) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Distrest virtue; or, the history of Miss Harriet Nelson. In which is included the unhappy story of Miss Caroline Lenox. In a series of letters. In three volumes. ... (1781) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The denouement: or, history of Lady Louisa Wingrove. By a lady. (1781) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Masquerades; or, what you will. By the author of Eliza Warwick, &c. In two volumes. Vol. I. (1781) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• An interesting sketch of genteel life. By a lady. ... (1782) | Images | Text .txt | PDF | Metadata

• Laura and Augustus, an authentic story; in a series of letters, by a young lady. In three volumes. ... (1784) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The frolics of fancy, a familiar epistle, characteristic of Tristram Shandy, to Charles Reynolds, Esq; by Rowley Thomas. (1785) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Manon L'Escaut, or The fatal attachment (1786) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The Life of Cassem, the son of Hamid, a noble Arabian. Translated from an Oriental manuscript. (1787) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Lord Winworth; Or, the memoirs of an heir; a novel. In three volumes. ... (1787) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Caroline: or, the history of Miss Sedley. By a young lady. In two volumes. ... (1787) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The triumphs of fortitude: A novel. In a series of letters. In two volumes. ... (1789) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The wreath of friendship; or, a return from India. A novel, in a series of letters. In three volumes. ... (1790) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Monimia: A novel. In two volumes. ... (1791) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Frederick and Alicia (1791) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The labyrinths of life. A novel. By the author of Excessive sensibility, and Fatal follies. In four volumes. ... (1791) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Stellins; or, the new Werter. In two volumes. ... (1793) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The shepherdess of Aranville: a romance. Translated from the French of M. Liomin. ... (1794) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The English merchant: or the fatal effects of speculation in the funds: a novel, by Thomas Bolas. In two volumes ... (1795) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• Abstract: A character from life. In two volumes. ... (1797) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata

• The history of Laura, and the handsome hermit: in six letters, Elizabeth Singer Rowe (177X) | Images | Text | PDF | Metadata