It has long been recognized that women writers played a significant role in the rise of the novel. Women and the Rise of the Novel is the first systematic theoretical study of early modern women's fiction showing how and why it helped shape the novel's identity. While most studies of the origin of the novel begin with the eighteenth century, Donovan traces women's literary traditions from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries, focusing on the early modern period as a starting point. She examines works in Italian, French, and Spanish as well as English, highlighting the contributions of various women writers from Christine de Pizan to Jane Austen.