Charlotte Lennox’ Don Quixote im Reifrocke (1754) und der frühe Roman von Frauen in Deutschland

The reception of 18th-century English female writers in Germany is a neglected area. Therefore, this article aims to rediscover the translations of Charlotte Lennox’s works, and her novel Don Quixote im Reifrocke (1754) in particular. This work was discussed in German literary journals and considered by leading German men of letters such as Lessing, Hamann, and Wieland. Through the disguise of the Don Quixote genre, Lennox challenged the ideal of female passivity at a very early stage and therefore stands at the beginning of a slowly changing identity and role of women in eighteenth-century Germany.