This historical bibliography offers an entirely new foundation for the literary history of the late eighteenth century and Romantic period. Examining copies of all known surviving novels and reconstructing all those lost, the volume provides full details and a new introductory account of the authorship, publication, and review of new prose novels in English, 1770-1799.

This is the first complete copy-based record of the English novel at a key moment in its development, during the Romantic era. There are almost 2,500 separate entries in all, providing accurate researched details of authors, bibliographical composition of books and the whereabouts of surviving copies. It is a valuable record of women's writing: indicating that as much as 60 per cent of fiction written at this time was by female authors.