Hannah Webster Foster (1758 or 1759 - 1840) published The Coquette anonymously in 1797. Her epistolary novel became a bestseller, though it wasn’t attributed to Foster until almost twenty years after her death. Foster based her story on the real-life case of Elizabeth Whitman, an accomplished and attractive woman who was twice engaged but never married. After she became pregnant by a lover (his identity is still unknown), she traveled to a roadside tavern under the name “Mrs. Walker” and died after giving birth to a stillborn child. While her personal story was generally viewed as a tale of well- (or ill-?) deserved moral consequences rather than a relatable human tragedy, Foster’s revision of events takes a more nuanced view.
In this meticulously produced edition, the full text of the novel is accompanied by its 1855 Preface and an 1875 response, which provide invaluable context. The book showcases a complex narrative, its literary afterlife, and the way stories are told and retold, interpreted and reinterpreted.
Hannah Foster Webster was also the author of a 1798 novel called The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils, which explores education for women and its application in their adult lives. Like The Coquette, its author was credited simply as "A Lady of Massachusetts." The author's daughters, Harriet Vaughan Cheney and Eliza Lanesford Cushing, both became popular 19th-century authors.
The publisher of this edition of The Coquette, P-Wave Press, also publishes excellent editions of historic texts by Charlotte Lenox, Thomas Holcroft, and Thomas Love Peacock among others.
The Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster is internationally on the P-Wave Press website and also, in America, on Amazon. P-Wave Press Classics, April 2026.