Boston African American community in literature
Boston brothel life in literature
Category=DSBF
Category=DSK
Category=FBA
Category=FBC
Category=FYB
cross-dressing as literary device
cross-dressing narratives in fiction
early American female protagonists
early American naval history in fiction
early American women's literature
early nineteenth-century social critique
eq_anthologies-novellas-short-stories
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_classics
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
female autonomy in early novels
female military service in literature
female soldier and maritime adventures
female warrior narratives
fiction addressing social constraints on women
gender disguise in early American novels
gender norms and societal anxieties
historical context of cross-dressing
historical fiction and cultural reflection
interracial community life in literature
interracial interactions in city life
literary depictions of seduction and betrayal
literary portrayals of wartime America
maritime adventure and gender roles
moral and social commentary in fiction
moralistic and racy storytelling
narratives of escape and disguise
New England literary culture
New York elite and marriage in literature
nineteenth-century urban life in Boston
popular Anglo-American literary genres
popular fiction in early nineteenth-century New England
prostitution in early America
rural to urban migration stories
sentimental novel traditions
sexual politics in early U.S. fiction
The Female Marine historical edition
urban expansion and socia
urban expose literature
urban vice and moral panic
War of 1812 naval fiction
women navigating male-dominated spaces
women's agency in historical fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9781558491243
- Weight: 456g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 12 Jan 1998
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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This is the first complete modern edition of The Female Marine, a fictional cross-dressing trilogy originally published between 1815 and 1818. Enormously popular among New England readers, the tale in various versions appeared in no fewer than nineteen editions over that brief four-year span. This new edition appends three other contemporary accounts of cross-dressing and urban vice which, together with The Female Marine, provide a unique portrayal of prostitution and interracial city life in early-nineteenth-century America.
The alternately racy and moralistic narrative recounts the adventures of a young woman from rural Massachusetts who is seduced by a false-hearted lover, flees to Boston, and is entrapped in a brothel. She eventually escapes by disguising herself as a man and serves with distinction on board the U.S. frigate Constitution during the War of 1812. After subsequent onshore adventures in and out of male dress, she is happily married to a wealthy New York gentleman.
In his introduction, Daniel A. Cohen situates the story in both its literary and historical contexts. He explains how the tale draws upon a number of popular Anglo-American literary genres, including the female warrior narrative, the sentimental novel, and the urban exposé. He then explores how The Female Marine reflects early-nineteenth-century anxieties concerning changing gender norms, the expansion of urban prostitution, the growth of Boston's African American community, and feelings of guilt aroused by New England's notoriously unpatriotic activities during the War of 1812.
The alternately racy and moralistic narrative recounts the adventures of a young woman from rural Massachusetts who is seduced by a false-hearted lover, flees to Boston, and is entrapped in a brothel. She eventually escapes by disguising herself as a man and serves with distinction on board the U.S. frigate Constitution during the War of 1812. After subsequent onshore adventures in and out of male dress, she is happily married to a wealthy New York gentleman.
In his introduction, Daniel A. Cohen situates the story in both its literary and historical contexts. He explains how the tale draws upon a number of popular Anglo-American literary genres, including the female warrior narrative, the sentimental novel, and the urban exposé. He then explores how The Female Marine reflects early-nineteenth-century anxieties concerning changing gender norms, the expansion of urban prostitution, the growth of Boston's African American community, and feelings of guilt aroused by New England's notoriously unpatriotic activities during the War of 1812.
