Before 1660, English readers and theatergoers had never heard of a -coquette-; by the early 1700s, they could hardly watch a play, read a poem, or peruse a newspaper without encountering one. Why does British literature of this period pay so much attention to vain and flirtatious young women? Our Coquettes examines the ubiquity of the coquette in the eighteenth century to show how this figure enables authors to comment upon a series of significant social and economic developments--including the growth of consumer culture, widespread new wealth, increased travel and global trade, and...