Rachel Hunter (c. 1754 – 1813) was an English woman novelist of the early 19th century who lived and worked in Norwich.
She was a contemporary of Jane Austen.
Rachel Hunter wrote for the same circulating library readership as Jane Austen, and like the latter she might belittle standard novel conventions in writings like Letitia.
[1] Her writings were well known in the Austen circle, one acquaintance describing a state of well-being as "quite Palmerstone", after Hunter's Letters from Mrs Palmerstone.
[2] Jane's niece Anna Austen had her aunt in stitches by reading passages from Lady Maclean, where the protagonists were always in floods of tears;[3] and Jane herself composed a mock fan-letter to "Mrs Hunter of Norwich...Miss Jane Austen's tears have flowed over each sweet sketch in such a way as would do Mrs Hunter's heart good to see".