Epicures in rural pleasures: desire, dissent and sentimental economy in Sarah Scott's Millennium Hall

This article examines the politics of female pleasure in Millenium Hallboth in relation to the contemporary economic theories with which it engages, and in the light of the anonymous Histories of Some of the Penitents in the Magdalen-House upon which Scott's text is substantially modelled. When read in these contexts, this article suggests that the much vaunted pleasures of the ladies of Millenium Hall appear decidedly penitential. The argument is framed by a discussion of the problematic status of influential but “conservative” female writers for feminist scholarship.