Research Catalog

The power of sympathy / William Hill Brown. And The coquette / Hannah Webster Foster ; [both] with an introduction and notes by Carla Mulford.

Title
The power of sympathy / William Hill Brown. And The coquette / Hannah Webster Foster ; [both] with an introduction and notes by Carla Mulford.
Author
Brown, William Hill, 1765-1793
Publication
New York : Penguin Books, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Request for On-site UseRequest Scan
How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?
TextRequest in advance PS715.B6 P6 1996Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors
  • Foster, Hannah Webster, 1759-1840.
  • Mulford, Carla, 1955-
  • Penguin Books USA, Inc. publisher.
Description
lix, 288 p. : ill.; 20 cm.
Summary
Written in epistolary form and drawn from actual events, The Power of Sympathy (1789) and The Coquette (1797) were two of the earliest novels published in America. William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy reflects eighteenth-century America's preoccupation with the role of women as safekeepers of the country's morality. A novel about the dangers of succumbing to sexual temptations and the rewards of resistance, it was meant to promote women's moral rectitude, and the letters through which the story is told are filled with advice on the proper relationships between the sexes. Like The Power of Sympathy, Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette is concerned with womanly virtue. Eliza Wharton is eager to enjoy a bit of freedom before settling down to domestic life and begins a flirtation with the handsome, rakish Sanford. Their letters trace their relationship from its romantic beginnings to the transgression that inevitably brings their exclusion from proper society. In her Introduction, Carla Mulford discusses the novels' importance in the development of American literature and as vivid reflections of the goal to establish a secure republic built on the virtue of its citizens.
Series Statement
Penguin classics
Uniform Title
Penguin classics
Alternative Title
  • Power of sympathy
  • Coquette
Subject
  • Whitman, Elizabeth, 1752-1788 > Fiction
  • 1700-1799
  • American fiction > 18th century
  • Man-woman relationships > Fiction
  • Didactic fiction, American
  • Women > Fiction
Genre/Form
Biographical fiction
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references.
Contents
The power of sympathy: or, the triumph of nature, founded in truth -- The Coquette; or, the history of Eliza Wharton; a novel; founded on fact -- Explanatory notes -- Appendix I -- Appendix II.
ISBN
0140434682
LCCN
^^^96005347^
OCLC
  • 34243856
  • SCSB-11536635
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library