Lucy Temple (Paperback or Softback)

Lucy Temple (1828) is a novel by Susanna Rowson. Inspired in part by the author’s experiences in America―she was brought there by her father, a Royal Navy officer, and place under house arrest during the American Revolution―Lucy Temple, the sequel to her bestselling novel Charlotte Temple, fits squarely into the popular genre of the seduction novel. Alongside such works as Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette (1797), Rowson’s novel continues to inform scholars on the historical portrayal of women’s sexuality in English and American literature. “Such an assemblage of youth and innocence naturally attracted the young soldiers: they stopped; and, as the little cavalcade passed, almost involuntarily pulled off their hats. A tall, elegant girl looked at Montraville and blushed: he instantly recollected the features of Charlotte Temple, whom he had once seen and danced with at a ball at Portsmouth.” From this brief chance encounter, so much suffering ensues. Not long after meeting her on the street, Lieutenant John Montraville seduces young Charlotte and convinces her to leave her family and friends behind to join him in the new world. There, spurred on by rumors of infidelity and harboring his own sinister motives, he soon abandons his innocent wife, leaving her alone in a country where nobody knows her name. Although her father reaches her in time to see her once more, she soon succumbs to illness and poverty, leaving a young daughter behind. Lucy Temple is a tragic story of romance and morality from a leading writer and educator of her time. This edition of Susanna Rowson’s Lucy Temple is a classic work of British-American literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Susanna Rowson (1762-1824) was a British-American novelist, poet, actress, and geographer. Born in Portsmouth, England, Rowson was taken to Massachusetts by her father, a Royal Navy officer, following the death of her mother. The family was placed under house arrest during the American Revolution and moved from Nantasket to Abington, Massachusetts. In 1778, they were sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia as part of a prisoner exchange and later settled in Yorkshire, England. As a young woman, Susanna moved to London and embarked on a career as a writer with the publication of Victoria (1786). Five years later, she published Charlotte Temple, which went on to become the first bestselling novel in the newly formed United States. In 1793, after gaining a reputation as an actress in Edinburgh, Susanna moved to Philadelphia to join the theater company of Thomas Wignell, for whom she performed over fifty roles in just two seasons on stage. She left theater several years later to found a school for girls in Boston, which she later moved to Newton, Massachusetts. Rowson continued writing works of fiction throughout her life, but largely devoted herself to education in her late career. Rowson’s Abridgement to Universal Geography (1805) and Youth’s First Steps in Geography (1811) are considered the first works of human geography―incorporating social and religious subjects―published in history. She ran her school, which eventually returned to Boston, until 1822, at which point she retired and handed operations over to her daughters.