The Coquette of Hannah Webster FosterEliza Wharton has sinned. She has also seduced, deceived, loved and been had. With The Coquette, Hannah Webster Foster uses Eliza as an allegory, the archetype of a woman gone bad. To a 20th century reader, Eliza's plight seems overly dramatized, pathetic, perhaps even silly. She loved a man but circumstances deterred their marriage and forced them into a guilt-laden whirlwind of dating that destroyed both their lives. A 20th century reader may have defended Sanford's divorce, she may have defended the affair, she may have defended Eliza's acceptance of Boyer's proposal. She may have thrown the book to the ground in anger, disgraced by the image of ineffective and trapped female characters. We might observe similar reactions by placing Foster's novel in an 18th-century context. But would these be the reactions Foster anticipated? Were 18th-century readers supposed to view La Coquette as an educational text, or were they supposed to enjoy it without applying it to their own lives? Did she want to teach her female audience good behavior and warn against the dangers of the licentious seducer? The book was a bestseller; why would this type of text have been so popular? Writing a diary from the perspective of a fictional 18th century reader, a mother whose daughter is the age of Eliza's friends, will allow me to use reader response criticism to help answer these questions and decipher the possible social influences and/or meanings of the novel. Although reader response criticism varies from reviewer to reviewer, much of it is based on the idea that the reader himself is a valid critic, that his criticism is influenced by time and place, ...... middle of article..... .ontagu." [http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/montagu.html#Introductions]. June 1996.2. Davidson, Cathy. Revoultion and the Word, The Rise of the Novel in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.3 Foster, The Coquette New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.4. 1982.5.: Routledge, 1985.6. Murfin, Ross C. “What is Reader-Response Criticism” in The Scarlet Letter Boston: Bedford, 1991.7. /. /www.press.jhu.edu/books/hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/entries/reader-esponse_theory_and_criticism.html]. Wollstonecraft, Mary. New York: Penguin, 1992.