SOURCE: Davidson, Cathy N. “The Picaresque and the Margins of Political Discourse: The Female Picaresque.” In Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America, pp. 179-92. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

In the following excerpt, Davidson examines the female picaresque novel and its appropriation of a literary form which celebrates male social mobility, claiming that Tenney's employment of the picaresque and her marginalized status as an author expose the restrictions of women of the period.

A woman on horseback, presents her form to advantage; but much more at the spinning wheel.

—Modern Chivalry

[The] circumscription of the female character within the domestic sphere constitutes a defining feature of sentimental fiction. In contrast, the picaresque novel defines itself by its own mobilities—formalistic and on the level of plot and characters, too. The picaresque hero can comment upon slavery, class disturbances, party politics, and different immigrant...