This is an alphabetical list of female novelists who were active in England and Wales , and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland before approximately 1800.
"Beauty in search of knowledge". (Young woman in front of a circulating library , where most readers accessed novels in the 18th century. Mezzotint, printed by R. Sayer & J. Bennett, London, 1782.)
”Bayley, Catharine .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2768. Accessed 2023-01-02. "Bouverie, Sophia ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2746. Accessed 2022-06-09. Listed in Dale Spender's Mothers of the novel: 100 good women writers before Jane Austen (Pandora, 1986, p. 119ff). Spender is notable for her work recuperating the work of women writers long out of print. Todd, Janet , ed. A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660-1800 . Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld, 1985. (Internet Archive )"Bullock, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2242. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Sarah Butler ." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present . Cambridge UP. "C., Lady Mary ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2672. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Carver, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2228. Accessed 2022-06-09. Turner, Cheryl. Living by the pen: women writers in the eighteenth century . Routledge, 1992.
"Colpoys, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2624. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Croffts, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2319. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Draper, Sarah ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2436. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Elson, Jane ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 1632. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Frances, Sophia ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2733. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Howell, Ann ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 1025. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Hunter, Maria ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 1898. Accessed 2022-06-12. "Isaacs, Mrs. " The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2691. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Johnson, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2306. Accessed 2022-09-29. Chawton House has a PDF of her Francis, the Philanthropist: an unfashionable tale (1786)."Jones, Harriet ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2663. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Lansdell, Sarah" . The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2428. Accessed 2022-06-09."Leslie, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2693. Accessed 2022-06-09. ”Malden, Miriam .” The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID 2718. Accessed 2023-01-02. "Martin, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 281. Accessed 2022-06-09. Chawton House has a PDF of her The Enchantress; or, Where Shall I Find Her? A Tale (1801)."Mathews, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 281. Accessed 2022-29-09. "Mathews, Mrs ." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present . Cambridge UP. ”Matthew, Charlotte .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2694. Accessed 2023-01-02. ”Mills, Frances Mary .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2695. Accessed 2023-01-02. ”Moore, Marian .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2703. Accessed 2023-01-02. Neiman, Elizabeth, and Christina Morin. "Re-evaluating the Minerva Press: introduction." Romantic textualties: literature and print culture, 1780–1840 . Issue 23: Special Issue: The Minerva Press and the literary marketplace (Summer 2020): 15.
"Neri, Mary Anne ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2719. Accessed 2022-06-09. ”Oakes, Susanna .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2704. Accessed 2023-01-02.
”Ormsby, Anne .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2705. Accessed 2023-01-02. "Catherine Parry ." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present . Cambridge UP. "Sarah Pearson ." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present . Cambridge UP. ”Peck, Frances .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2754. Accessed 2023-01-02. "M. Peddle ." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present . Cambridge UP. "Philipps, Janetta ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 4853. Accessed 2022-06-09. ”Pickar, Mary .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2729. Accessed 2023-01-02. “Ratcliffe, Eliza .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2755. Accessed 2023-01-02. ”Rhodes, Henrietta .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2791. Accessed 2023-01-02. "Roberts, Mrs. D ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2735. Accessed 2023-01-02. Author of The balance of comfort; or The old maid and married woman. A novel . London: Minerva Press, 1818 (Internet Archive ) and The woman of genius . London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821 (Internet Archive ) "Scott, Honoria .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2783. Accessed 2023-01-02. "Sheriffe, Sarah ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2686. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Showes, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 365. Accessed 2022-06-09. () “Sinclair, Caroline ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2765. Accessed 2023-01-02. “Smith, Julia .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2785. Accessed 2023-01-02. "Smith, Maria Lavinia ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2697. Accessed 2022-06-09. “St. Victor, Helen .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2756. Accessed 2023-01-02. "Street, Miss ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2171. Accessed 2022-06-09. Stuart's Cava of Toledo; or, the Gothic Princess (Minerva, 1812) is available from Chawton House as a PDF . "Taylor, Miss ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2166. Accessed 2022-06-09. “Tharmott, Maria .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2744. Accessed 2023-01-02. Lonsdale, Roger ed. "Ann Thomas ." Eighteenth-Century Women Poets: An Oxford Anthology . New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 361. "Thomson, Anna ." The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID 2257. Accessed 2023-01-02. "Thomson, Harriet ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2721. Accessed 2023-01-02. “Trelawney, Anne ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2757. Accessed 2023-01-02. “Tuck, Mary .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2722. Accessed 2023-01-02. "Ventum, Harriet .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2698. Accessed 2023-01-02. "Wingrove, Ann .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 1041. Accessed 2023-01-02. ”Woodfall, Sophia .” The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 599. Accessed 2023-01-02. "A. Woodfin ." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present . Cambridge UP. "Wright, Elizabeth ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2699. Accessed 2022-06-09. "Yorke, Mrs. R. P. M ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2687. Accessed 2022-06-09.
Backscheider, Paula, and John Richetti, eds. Popular Fiction by Women, 1660–1730: An Anthology . Oxford: OUP, 1996. (Internet Archive )
Ballaster, Ros. Seductive Forms: Women's Amatory Fiction from 1684 to 1740 . Clarendon Press, 1992.
Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English . New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990. (Internet Archive )
Buck, Claire, ed.The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature . Prentice Hall, 1992. (Internet Archive )
Corman, Brian. Women Novelists Before Jane Austen: The Critics and Their Canons . University of Toronto Press, 2008. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442689633
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Prescott, Sarah. Women, Authorship and Literary Culture, 1690–1740 . Palgrave, 2003.
Robertson, Fiona, ed. Women's Writing, 1778–1838 . Oxford: OUP, 2001. (Internet Archive )
Schellenberg, Betty A. The Professionalization of Women Writers in Eighteenth-Century Britain . Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-521-85060-6 .
Schlueter, Paul, and June Schlueter. An encyclopedia of British women writers . Rutgers University Press, 1998. (Internet Archive )
Spencer, Jane. The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen . 1986.
Spender, Dale . Mothers of the novel: 100 good women writers before Jane Austen Internet Archive )Todd, Janet , ed. British Women Writers: a critical reference guide . London: Routledge, 1989. (Internet Archive )Todd, Janet . A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660–1800 . Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld, 1985. (Internet Archive )Williams, K. "Women Writers and the Rise of the Novel." The History of British Women's Writing, 1690–1750 . Edited by R. Ballaster. Series: The History of British Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230298354_7 
