Claudine Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin, The History of the Count de Comminge, Translated by Charlotte Lennox

In 1756 Charlotte Lennox, already a celebrated novelistâ "she had just published her most renowned work, The Female Quixote, a year beforeâ "translated from the original French one of the most successful novels written by Madame Claudine GÃ(c)rin, the marquise de Tencin, MÃ(c)moires du comte de Comminge (1735). At the time, Madame de Tencin was a controversial public figure, an intellectual woman and one of the most distinguished salonnières in eighteenth-century France. Although Tencinâ (TM)s name as the authoress of the novel was kept secret until after her death, notwithstanding the outstanding success of her MÃ(c)moires, Charlotte Lennox knew that the novel had been penned by a woman and decided to translate it and later serialize it in her feminist magazine The Ladyâ (TM)s Museum, a periodical wholly devoted to womenâ (TM)s literary and cultural education. Lennoxâ (TM)s translation of Tencinâ (TM)s short novel is here reprinted for the first time after two centuries with critical notes and an introduction, in an edition that takes into account a close comparison between Lennoxâ (TM)s translation and Madame de Tencinâ (TM)s original French version, and analyses all the variations and addenda that appeared in Lennoxâ (TM)s own version of The History of the Count de Comminge.