One of the most popular works of the eighteenth century, Letters from a Peruvian Woman appeared in more than 130 editions, reprints, and translations during the hundred years following its publication in 1747. In the novel the Inca princess Zilia is kidnapped by Spanish conquerors, captured by the French after a battle at sea, and taken to Europe. She describes her experiences in a series of letters to the prince she was to have married in Peru. Graffigny's brilliant novel offered a bold critique of French society, delivered one of the most vehement feminist protests in eighteenth-century literature, and announced -- fourteen years before Rousseau's Julie, or the New Eloise -- the Romantic tradition in French literature.