Charlotte McCarthy

Charlotte McCarthy or Charlotte MacCarthy (fl. 1745-68) was an Irish novelist and religious writer. She published five works including The Fair Moralist.

Life MacCarthy's early life is mostly unknown, but it was Protestant and in Ireland. According to MacCarthy her father, a gentleman, died leaving her little. She had a religious episode during a vigil with her dead mother's body. She believed that she had been poisoned by an unknown "Jesuit" which damaged her for life. Her work was noted for "refreshing coarseness" and this book was later noted for its lesbian encounters and a "Boccaccio episode". In 1767 she published her last known book Justice and Reason faithful guides to truth.

Her last published writing was an article in 1768 in the Monthly Review where she used the nom de plume of Prudentia Christiana in an open letter addressed to the Bishop of London (Humphrey Henchman) concerning the poor moral state of the country.