Hope Leslie: Or, Early Times in the Massachusetts (American Women Writers Series) - Hardcover

Catherine Sedgwick (author)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813512212 ISBN 13: 9780813512211

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 1987

Synopsis

Hope Leslie (1827), set in the seventeenth-century New England, is a novel that forced readers to confront the consequences of the Puritans' subjugation and displacement of the indigenous Indian population at a time when contemporaries were demanding still more land from the Cherokees, the Chickasaws, and the Choctaws. "This handsome reprint ... makes available after many decades the New Englander's tale of seventeeth-century Puritans, and their relations with the indigenous Indian population." -- Nineteeth-Century Literature " A splendidly conceived edition of Sedwick's historical romance. Highly recommended." --Choice "Develop(s) the connections between patriarchal authority within the Puritan state and its policy of dispossessing and exterminating Indians. The different heritage it envisions explicitly link white women and Indians and elaborates a communal concept of liberty at odds with the individualistic concept which predominated in American culture." -- Legacy

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Set in seventeenth-century New England, Hope Leslie (1827) portrays early American life and celebrates the role of women in building the republic. A counterpoint to the novels of James Fenimore Cooper, it challenges the conventional view of Indians, tackles interracial marriage and cross-cultural friendship, and claims for women their rightful place in history. At the center of the novel are two friends. Hope Leslie, a spirited thinker in a repressive Puritan society, fights for justice for the Indians and asserts the independence of women. Magawisca, the passionate daughter of a Pequot chief, braves her father's wrath to save a white man and risks her freedom to reunite Hope with her long-lost sister, captured as a child by the Pequots and now married to Magawisca's brother. Amply plotted, with unforgettable characters, Hope Leslie is a rich, compelling, deeply satisfying novel.

About the Author:

Mary Kelley is Mary Brinsmead Wheelock Professor of History at Dartmouth College. The author of Private Woman, Public Stage: Literary Domesticity in Nineteenth-Century America, she has also coauthored The Limits of Sisterhood: The Beecher Sisters on Women's Rights and Woman's Sphere. Most recently, she edited The Portable Margaret Fuller. Catharine Maria Sedgwick (December 28, 1789 - July 31, 1867) was one of the most notable female novelists of the early nineteeth century. She wrote works set in the colonial and early American periods, and combined a naturalistic and romantic style with protests against Puritan oppressiveness. Her spirited female characters stood in direct contrast to the traditional roles of women of the period.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0813512212
• ISBN 13: 9780813512211
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 200