Susanna Haswell Rowson (Ordre des livres (chronologique))

Susanna Haswell Rowson Ordre des livres (chronologique)

Susanna Rowson fut une auteure britannique-américaine dont l'œuvre influença considérablement la littérature américaine naissante. Son écriture se caractérisait par une perspicacité aiguë des normes sociales et des dilemmes moraux de son époque. Rowson explora diverses formes littéraires, des romans à la poésie, et ses textes abordaient souvent des thèmes tels que l'honneur, la trahison et la quête d'identité au sein de structures sociétales complexes. Sa capacité à saisir la profondeur psychologique des personnages et la complexité morale des situations en fait une figure marquante de l'histoire de la fiction américaine.

Charlotte Temple

160pages
6 heures de lecture

<i>Charlotte Temple</i> became a "best seller," going through over 200 editions and holding the title of the most popular American novel until <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>. The story follows a beautiful English girl, Charlotte, who, at 15, elopes with British lieutenant Montraville. After arriving in America, Montraville abandons her to marry another woman and leaves for the Revolutionary War. Desperate and pregnant, Charlotte seeks out the corrupt French teacher who encouraged her relationship with Montraville. Rejected, she finds refuge with her servant. Charlotte's father, a nobleman with a tarnished fortune, arrives just in time to bury his daughter and claim her illegitimate child. Although there is no historical evidence to support the story's claims, Susanna Rowson maintained it was true, and it was embraced as a "tale of truth." In the 19th century, a tombstone with Charlotte's name was erected in New York's Trinity Churchyard, where readers left flowers, locks of hair, and love letters for America's most famous fictional character. Cathy N. Davidson's introduction explores the book's immense popularity and Rowson's sensational life, which rivaled her characters' stories.

1986