ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reflects upon the practice and theory of editing women's writing of the long eighteenth century, presenting distinctive insights into projects dedicated to the ongoing recovery of women's literary history. There has been substantial expansion in the publication of modern reprints and scholarly editions of eighteenth-century texts by women, produced over the last decades for a general and academic readership. The impetus to make available early women writers was at the same time shared by both feminist scholars, committed to challenging the canon of eighteenth-century literary studies, and scholarly publishers, for whom a comprehensive editorial apparatus was a priority. Eighteenth-Century Novels by Women was a series founded in this period and edited by Isobel Grundy for the University Press of Kentucky. It is notable that editors of early modern women writers are further ahead in theorizing their practice.
