- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.; Reprint edition (19 Feb 1987)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195042395
- ISBN-13: 978-0195042399
- Product Dimensions: 18.7 x 15.5 x 1.3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,990,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Coquette (Girlebooks Classics)
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Product Description
Review
"This novel captures very well the dilemma of late 18th-Century American women. Despite their own misgivings about reading a novel of this sort students became caught up in Eliza Wharton's plight and quickly understood the forces at work in her life. It makes a great text for class discussions."--Sonya Michel, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Product Description
"The Coquette," one of the two "best-selling" American novels of the 18th century, tells the much-publicized story of the seduction and death of Elizabeth Whitman, a poet from Hartford, Conneticut. Written as a series of letters - between the heroine and her friends and lovers - it describes her long, tortuous courtship by two men, neither of whom perfectly suits her. Eliza Wharton (as Whitman is called in the novel) wavers between Major Sanford, a charming but insincere man, and the Reverend Boyer, a bore who wants to marry her. When, in her mid-30s, Wharton finds herself suddenly abandoned when both men marry other women, she willfully enters into a relationship with Sanford and becomes pregnant. Alone and dejected, she dies in childbirth at a roadside inn.
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First Sentence
An unusual sensation possesses my breast; a sensation, which I once thought could never pervade it on any occasion whatever. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
An unusual sensation possesses my breast; a sensation, which I once thought could never pervade it on any occasion whatever. Read the first page
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Coquettry in Early America
7 Jun 2002
Format:Paperback
Hannah Foster's 1797 novel, "The Coquette," seems, at first glance, like an early American ripoff of such famous 18th century British novels like Samuel Richardson's "Pamela" or "Clarissa," and indeed it contains references and allusions to both, and to a wealth of other 18th century British fiction. In its historical context, though, "The Coquette" acquires added significance and cultural depth, as a response to the guiding philsophies and political stances of the new American nation.
"The Coquette" begins with death and a rebirth. The main character, your title coquette, if you will, Eliza Wharton, rejoices in her freedom from the structure of her family's controls. Her betrothed, an elderly man named Haly, has just died, releasing Eliza from an unloving engagement. Free now to indulge her native sprightliness and sociability, Eliza goes to New Haven, Connecticut, to spend some time with and in the society of her married friend, Mrs. Richman. In New Haven, Eliza, already in her late 20's-early 30's, is the darling of society, where her cultivated mind, and liberal temperament are given free reign. Here, she is wooed by two men, Reverend Boyer, about to come into a residency in a fashionable parish, and Major Sanford, widely known as a libertine, but permitted into polite society because of his rank and apparent wealth. The action of the novel concerns Eliza's choice between the two.
The choice, simple as it may seem, is complicated by its inflections by way of the political and social culture of the early American republic. In such contexts, Eliza, with the help and advice of her confidants, Mrs. Richman, Lucy Freeman, Julia Granby, and her own mother, must try to negotiate newly-found freedom and independence within the gendered constraints of virtue and propriety. This is the philosophical and political crux of the novel - Foster asks the reader throughout the novel how individual freedoms are to be understood within a newly centralized federal government.
Alongside the common romance-epistolary tropes of seduction and violation, we read "The Coquette" with an eye toward agricultural and commercial expansion. In a novel where seemingly no one works to earn a living, we must extrapolate the typically early American notions of self-making and industrious citizenry through the characters' discussions of personal and social identity, as well as in the way that people create themselves through personal writings. This is evinced, of course, most obviously in early America by folks like Benjamin Franklin in his "Autobiography" and Thomas Jefferson in his "Notes on the State of Virginia".
Foster's "The Coquette" isn't the best novel. Shoot, in terms of artistry, it's really not very good at all. But as a barometer of one woman's opinions on the early American nation, and the place of women within it, it is an invaluable fictional resource.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Women show power and weakness in Revolutionary America
29 Sep 1999
Format:Paperback
Hannah Foster Webster uses letters to tell a story of Eliza and her lovers. Although this is an ingenious method, it makes the reading so complex.Webster also explores the power that women have in Revolutionary America. It is a good portrayal of the exception. In a time when most women are ruled by their father or husband, Eliza and her mother are both independent. The most striking detail of the book is that Eliza is actually "past her prime" in terms of that era. She is 37 years old; many women would have been married at 16. Altogether this book was a good and quick read and I would recommend it to those who like history or women's studies.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The Coquette
10 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback
This is a great story and I enjoyed reading it. Wharton's story revisits ground so many young girls and women walk upon. I see its moral value and educational value rather than its place in literature. I see a reminder to both young men and women that life's consequences visit upon us no matter who we are, especially women in love.
Yes, the ruling class at the time stood alongside the shop keepers and emerging working-class and field workers. Of course times have changed and so too have the privileges, thanks to medicine, mobility, and the Internet; yet the problems for women continue today as they did at the turn of the eighteenth century.
A good story seldom grows to old to help clarify the ground that we might still walk on, figuratively speaking. I will add this story to my Kindle in case my wife chooses to read it. She likes to share stories with her neices.
Eddie Evans
Yes, the ruling class at the time stood alongside the shop keepers and emerging working-class and field workers. Of course times have changed and so too have the privileges, thanks to medicine, mobility, and the Internet; yet the problems for women continue today as they did at the turn of the eighteenth century.
A good story seldom grows to old to help clarify the ground that we might still walk on, figuratively speaking. I will add this story to my Kindle in case my wife chooses to read it. She likes to share stories with her neices.
Eddie Evans
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