The Morgesons - Softcover

Stoddard, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1605976849 ISBN 13: 9781605976846

Publisher: Book Jungle, 2008

Synopsis

...I suppose it was environment that caused me to write these novels; but the mystery of it is, that when I left my native village I did not dream that imagination would lead me there again, for the simple annals of our village and domestic ways did not interest me; neither was I in the least studious. My years were passed in an attempt to have a good time, according to the desires and fancies of youth. Of literature and the literary life, I and my tribe knew nothing; we had not discovered "sermons in stones." Where then was the panorama of my stories and novels stored, that was unrolled in my new sphere? Of course, being moderately intelligent I read everything that came in my way, but merely for amusement. It had been laid up against me as a persistent fault, which was not profitable; I should peruse moral, and pious works, or take up sewing,--that interminable thing, "white seam," which filled the leisure moments of the right-minded. To the personnel of writers I gave little heed; it was the hero they created that charmed me, like Miss Porter's gallant Pole, Sobieski, or the ardent Ernest Maltravers, of Bulwer...

About this title

From the Back Cover

Elizabeth Stoddard's revolutionary novel explores the conflict between a woman's instinct, passion, and will, and the social taboos, family allegiances, and traditional New England restraint that inhibit her. Set in a small seaport town, The Morgesons (1862) is the dramatic story of Cassandra Morgeson's fight against social and religious norms in a quest for sexual, spiritual, and economic autonomy. A female bildungsroman that embodies the convergence of the melodrama and sexual undercurrents of gothic romance and Victorian social realism, The Morgesons marks an important transition in the development of the novel and evoked comparisons during Stoddard's lifetime with such masters as Balzac, Tolstoy, Eliot, the Brontes, and Hawthorne.

About the Author

Elizabeth Stoddard (1823-1902) was the author of three novels, including "The Morgesons "and "Temple House," as well as short fiction, poetry, and newspaper editorials. Jennifer Putzi is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Women's Studies Program at the College of William and Mary. She is the author of "Identifying Marks: The Marked Body in Nineteenth-Century American Literature."

Edition details

• Publisher: Book Jungle
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1605976849
• ISBN 13: 9781605976846
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272