Charlotte Temple (Early American Women Writers)

by Susanna Rowson

Other authorsCathy N. Davidson (Editor)

Paperback, 1987

Status

Available

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Oxford University Press (1987), 160 pages

Description

Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple became a huge seller in America from its first publication there in 1794, subsequently going through over two hundred editions. This seduction novel tells of British schoolgirl Charlotte Temple, swept away to America by the dashing soldier John Montraville and abandoned there, sick and pregnant. Charlotte's daughter is the namesake of Rowson's sequel Lucy Temple..

User reviews

LibraryThing member JRuel

It's one of these Georgian/Victorian cautionary tales, except it was written in America, probably among the first of the genre to be written there. It doesn't renew the genre, but it had the advantage of being shorter than its British counterparts like Richardson's or Burney's. For me, it's one of

those classics which don't age well because their subject matter is so close to the morals of the times.

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LibraryThing member harayoo95

I think that it is a great book for American Literature classes and the content is quite interesting. It is useful for high school level English classes too.

LibraryThing member wareagle78

Remorse with a side dish of guilt is the theme of Charlotte Temple, a US bestseller before the term existed. The tale is universal - a lovely, well-brought-up, moral young woman takes a tiny step astray with the encouragement of a seeming friend. Guilt from taking the small step keeps her from

admitting the error, and makes it easier to continue to move in a direction that she knows to be wrong. The morality tale is drawn to show the young female reader how easy it is to become a Fallen Woman, and how difficult to recover. While the tale is set in the 1700's, the theme is just as relevant today although the situation itself would not raise as many eyebrows.

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