Fall River: An Authentic Narrative (Women Writers in English 1350-1850) - Hardcover

Williams, Catharine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019508036X ISBN 13: 9780195080360

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1993

Synopsis

One of the earliest documentary novels, Fall River recounts the famous murder of a mill girl and the subsequent trial of a popular minister of the period. Compellingly written, it is not only a record of a sensational story of its times, but also a revealing embodiment of the social and cultural climate of early nineteenth century industrial America. The book is also an important landmark in the history of religion in American popular culture, with detailed descriptions of religious camp meetings in New England. Williams was urged by her readers to compose her account of these events, in order to correct what she called the "indecent manner" in which they had hitherto been reported. (David Kasserman's recent widely acclaimed sociological study Fall River Outrage is based on the events Williams describes.) This unprecedented new series reintroduces women's writings of cultural and literary interest, from the Medieval period through the early nineteenth century, often for the first time since their original publication. Derived from the Brown University Women Writers Project, the series unearths a wide range of neglected gems, dispelling the myth that women wrote little of real value before the Victorian period. Each volume includes an introduction putting the work in its historical and literary context and helpful explanatory notes.

About this title

About the Author

Patricia Caldwell is at Brown University.

Review

"The story of Hester Prynne, had she worked in a factory. It pivotally locates women's sexuality amid industrialization, familial dispersion, religious fervor, and the American juridical system."--Russ Castronovo, University of Miami

Praise for the series: "Publishing these previously unknown or ignored volumes by women will revolutionize the canon of English and American literature taught in graduate and undergraduate courses. The list of texts is impressive. It includes some of the most important scholarship now under way in the field of Renaissance literature."--Margaret Hannay, Siena College

"Making these writers available in an easily accessible form contributes significantly not only to feminist scholarship, which has been seeking to recover the works of such writers for two decades, but also to teaching and scholarship more generally within the humanities, from the freshman level to the most specialized postgraduate level."--Marlon Ross, University of Michigan

"The texts chosen form an extremely interesting and quite varied group, and the prospect of having them in book form is exciting. Scholars and students will be much richer for it."--Carolyn Dinshaw, University of California, Berkeley

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 019508036X
• ISBN 13: 9780195080360
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Caldwell Patricia