Charlotte Ramsay Lennox (1727?-1804)

Literary Career	Writings	Images
Biographical Details	Criticism	Reception

Literary Career

Though the facts of Charlotte Lennox's life are sketchy at best, the history of her writings is more easily described and widely known. Lennox was a poet of some renown early in her life, publishing her Poems on Several Occasions in 1747. The most famous of her poetic efforts, "The Art of Coquetry," appeared in 1750 in the Gentleman's Magazine. That poem, using the rhetoric of wars and battles in its recommendation of subtly artful behaviors, teaches young women to employ feminine wiles in order to subdue men to "their empire" and promises that such women will "controul the world by love," if they are careful not to fall in love themselves. Though presenting sentiments that would not have caused much stir if voiced by an Alexander Pope, Lennox's poem produced both praise and wrath. "The Art of Coquetry" prompted an adulatory poem "Advice to a Novice in Love, Occasioned by Reading the Art of Coquetry by Mrs. Charlotte Lennox." Bluestocking Elizabeth Carter, however, despised Lennox's message. Lennox displayed an early interest in the ways women wield power, even if she restricted her comment to a predictable sphere of influence and voiced frequently rehearsed ideologies of femininity.

Of most significance to current estimations of Lennox's career is the fact that, during a time that was "rich in prose," she contributed a great deal of it to the public. Lennox wrote five (and possibly six) novels over the course of forty years, including The Life of Harriot Stuart (1751), The Female Quixote (1752), Henrietta (1758), Sophia (1762), and Euphemia (1790). The History of Eliza (1766) has been tentatively attributed to Lennox by literary critic Duncan Isles (1970-1).

The greatest success of Lennox's career was The Female Quixote. Well received in its own time, it enjoyed a second edition within months of its publication and was eventually translated into German, Spanish, and French. Although Lennox's name did not appear on the title page until 1783, her authorship was generally acknowledged and was referred to in some reviews of the book. Today The Female Quixote receives attention because of its commanding and powerful heroine, Arabella, and because of its woman-centered version of the novel's superiority to the romance. The Female Quixote (subtitled The Adventures of Arabella) focuses on a young heiress whose sheltered life is guided entirely by knowledge gained from frivolous seventeeth-century French romances.

Lennox wrote in other genres as well. She published, to mixed reviews, an ambitious work of translation and literary criticism, Shakespear Illustrated (1753), concluding that Shakespeare's sources ("novels and histories") were more worthy of esteem than had formerly been thought. Lennox unpropitiously found the bard wanting. Like many of her contemporaries, Lennox also translated a number of works into English, including histories, biographies, and fiction. The most prolific period of Lennox's career was 1750-1761, during which her most critically applauded works were published.

Lennox edited and provided a good deal of the contents for eleven issues of a periodical, The Lady's Museum (1760-1). This magazine included not only the serial publication of a novel, "The History of Harriot and Sophia," (later published as Sophia [1762]) but also featured essays on geography, philosophy, and history. It included running articles on the original inhabitants of Great Britain, the trial of the Maid of Orleans, the vestal virgins of Rome, and miscellaneous letters, essays, translations, and poems. Like many of her contemporaries making a living in the field of belles lettres, Lennox tried her hand at the periodical, but her venture was not a successful one.

Lennox changed direction in the late 1760s and 1770s and began writing for the stage. She was by no means a stranger to the theater, having been in 1748 a "deplorable actress" in Horace Walpole's estimation. Lennox wrote, with limited success, three dramatic works. Philander: A Dramatic Pastoral (1758) was apparently never performed, though a reviewer found it an "ingenius performance," written with "becoming modesty," "uncommon elegance and purity" and "varied, spirited, and correct" versification. The Sister (1762) was based on one of her novels and may have been sabotaged by audience members in its first and only performance. Finally, Lennox wrote Old City Manners (1775), an adaptation of George Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Marston's Eastward Ho! (1604). Like The Female Quixote, Old City Manners was a rewriting of a popular work that was itself a reaction to another text. Her last play proved her most successful dramatic work, running for seven nights.

Lennox died in penury on January 4, 1804.

WebCounter says you are visitor