Today's Book: The History of Charlotte Summers, the Fortunate Parish Girl
Title: The History of Charlotte Summers, the Fortunate Parish Girl (French title: L'Orpheline angloise, ou Histoire de Charlotte Summers.)
Author: Anonymous.
Publication: The book was originally published in English in 1750, and translated into French the next year. The edition in Marie Antoinette's library is from 1781.
Notes: Tells the story of an orphaned girl named Charlotte Summers who is adopted by the generous Lady Bountiful, and finds her former hard knock life as an orphan turned around by her newfound family, newfound wealth and of course, her good nature--but not without some misadventures, of course!
The author of the novel is unknown. 'Charlotte Summers' is the first known imitation of Henry Fielding's popular novel Tom Jones, which may be why his sister Sarah Fielding was suspected of being the author. However, there is no definitive evidence proving Sarah Fielding was the true author.
Where you can read it: Available in English from Google Books: Volume I and Volume II
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