Coquettes and Gallants: (Re-)Assessing Eighteenth-Century English Translations of French Memoirs

This article explores eighteenth‐century English translations of French memoirs and reconsiders the cultural impact of this controversial literary genre. The works discussed were all originally written by (or attributed to) female members of the French nobility, and the translators reveal the extent to which the shifting social and political conventions in France and Britain created conceptual instabilities concerning gender and sexual politics. Although French memoirs have been neglected by recent literary critics and social historians, this article demonstrates that the perspectives offered by these texts provide uniquely revealing insights into British attitudes towards many important aspects of French culture.