List of women novelists before Jane Austen

Dale Spender laid the groundwork for this list in her classic Mothers of the Novel: 100 good women writers before Jane Austen (1986) (names on Spender's original list are indicated with an asterisk [*]).
The Novelists
* Penelope Aubin*
* Jane Barker*
* Aphra Behn
* Anna Maria Bennett* (whom Spender called Agnes Maria Bennett)
* Elizabeth Bonhôte*
* Elizabeth Boyd*
* Sophie Briscoe*
* Eliza Bromley*
* Frances Brooke*
* Indiana Brooks*
* Mary Brunton*
* Mrs Burke*
* Frances Burney*
* Sarah Burney (Sarah Harriet Burney)*
* Lady Charlotte Bury*
* Mary Butt, Mrs Sherwood*
* Elizabeth Byron (Strutt)
* Mrs. Carver
* Lady Mary Champion de Crespigny*
* Charlotte Charke*
* Mary Charlton*
* Harriet Chilcot*
* Emily Clark*
* Jane Collier*
* Mary Collyer*
* Maria Susanna Cooper
* Helen Craik
* Charlotte Dacre
* Anne Seymour Damer*
* Mary Davys*
* Anne Dawe*
* Anne Eden*
* Maria Edgeworth*
* Elisa Fenwick*
* Susan Ferrier
* Sarah Fielding*
* E. M. Foster*
* Hannah Webster Foster
* Anne Fuller*
* Phoebe Gibbes*
* Mrs A. Gomershall*
* Sarah Green*
* Elizabeth Griffith*
* Susannah Minifie Gunning*
* Elizabeth Hamilton*
* Lady Mary Hamilton*
* Mary Ann Hanway*
* Jane Harvey
* Laetitia Matilda Hawkins*
* Mary Hays*
* Eliza Haywood
* Mary Hearne*
* Elizabeth Helme*
* Elizabeth Hervey*
* Mrs Howell*
* Anne Hughes*
* *
* Maria Hunter*
* Rachel Hunter
* Elizabeth Inchbald*
* Frances Jacson
* Mrs. Johnson
* Susanna Keir*
* Isabella Kelly*
* Anne Kerr*
* Sophia King*
* Ellis Cornelia Knight*
* Caroline Lamb
* Sarah Lansdell*
* Mary Latter*
* Harriet Lee*
* Sophia Lee*
* Charlotte Lennox*
* Alethea Lewis
* Charlotte MacCarthy*
* Anna Maria Mackenzie*
* Delarivier Manley
* Jean Marishall* (whom Spender called Jean Marshall)
* Mrs Martin
* Eliza Matthews*
* Anna Meades*
* Mary Meeke*
* Margaret Minifie*
* Hannah More*
* Lady Morgan* (Sydney Owenson)
* Elizabeth Norman*
* Amelia Opie*
* Charlotte Palmer*
* Mary Elizabeth Parker*
* Catherine Parry*
* Eliza Phelp Parsons*
* Susanna Pearson*
* M. Peddle*
* Laetitia Pilkington
* Mary Pilkington*
* Mary Pix*
* Arabella Plantin*
* Anne Plumptre
* Elizabeth Plunkett*
* Jane Porter
* Elizabeth Purbeck
* Jane Purbeck
* Ann Radcliffe*
* Mary Anne Radcliffe*
* Clara Reeve*
* Mary Darby Robinson*
* Regina Maria Dalton Roche*
* Elizabeth Singer Rowe*
* Susanna Rowson*
* Elizabeth Ryves* (or Elizabeth Reeves)
* Charlotte Sanders* (or Charlotte Saunders)
* Sarah Robinson Scott*
* Catherine Selden
* Frances Sheridan*
* Ann Emelinda Skinn*
* Eleanor Sleath*
* Catherine Smith
* Charlotte Turner Smith*
* Elizabeth Isabella Spence
* Sarah Emma Spencer*
* Augusta Amelia Stuart
* Miss Taylor*
* Elizabeth Thomas
* Jane Timbury*
* Elizabeth Tomlins*
* Jane Warton*
* Helena Wells*
* Jane West*
* Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson
* Helen Maria Williams*
* Mary Wollstonecraft*
* Mrs A. Woodfin*
* Ann Yearsley*
* Mary Julia Young*

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