Born yesterday: inexperience and the early realist novel

Introduction. Entering the world

Clarissa's conjectural history: the novel and the novice

When experience matters (and when it doesn't): Tom Jones and the Rake's Regress

Simple and sublime: the otherworldly of Ann Radcliffe's gothic

Starting from scratch: Frances Burney and the Appeals of Inexperience

Epilogue: Emma's Dystopia.