Margaret
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€34.99
A01=Sylvester Judd
allegories of moral awakening
alternative models of womanhood
American Renaissance context
Author_Sylvester Judd
Category=FBC
contested moral themes in nineteenth-century writing
critiques of social corruption
early American literary experimentation
ecological spirituality in storytelling
eq_bestseller
eq_classics
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
frontier-era cultural anxieties
gender and power in early American novels
hidden genealogies and family secrets
imaginative reworking of social order
influence on later transatlantic writers
innovative narrative hybrids
intersection of romance and social critique
intersections of nature and identity
literary lineage connecting major authors
literary responses to societal decay
metaphysical teachings in fiction
mid-century cultural debates
moral reform themes in novels
moral tension in village life
nineteenth-century New England fiction
philosophical fiction traditions
portrayals of urban temptation
proto-eco-critical fiction
proto-feminist narrative strategies
psychological development of heroines
rediscovering forgotten American classics
reformist storytelling traditions
reinterpretation of women's roles
representations of crime and punishment
rural village social dynamics
spiritual mentorship motifs
symbolic landscapes in fiction
temperance-era ideological conflicts
transatlantic reception of U.S. literature
transcendentalist narrative influences
visionary female protagonists
visionary reformers in literature
women's transformative journeys in fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9781558497177
- Weight: 662g
- Dimensions: 153 x 226mm
- Publication Date: 22 Sep 2009
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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This is a new edition of a classic work of the American Renaissance. Praised at the time as the most emphatically 'American' book ever written, ""Margaret"" is a breathtaking combination of female bildungsroman, utopian novel, and historical romance. First published in 1845, Sylvester Judd's novel centers on the fictional New England village of Livingston, where the young Margaret Hart strives to escape the poverty and vice of her surroundings by learning from a mysterious teacher, the 'Master', and by entwining herself with the powers of nature. But when Margaret's brother is tried and hanged for murder, this rural community collapses, forcing Margaret to face the temptations of an urban underworld and to confront the intrigue of her family history. ""Margaret"" is the story of a young woman's attempt to create a new social order, founded on beauty and truth, in a land plagued by violence, debauchery, and political instability. As Gavin Jones points out in his new introduction, ""Margaret"" perhaps stands alone in its creation of a female character who grows in social rather than domestic power. The novel also remains unique in its exploration of transcendental philosophy in novelistic form. Part eco-criticism, part seduction novel, part temperance tract, and part social history, ""Margaret"" is a virtual handbook for understanding the literary culture of mid-nineteenth-century America, the missing piece in puzzling out connections between writers such as hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, and Thoreau. ""Margaret"" was widely read and deeply influential on both British and American writers throughout the nineteenth century but controversial for its representations of alcoholism and capital punishment. Judd's novel remains resonant for today's readers as it overturns conventional views of the literary representation of women and the origins of the American Renaissance.
GAVIN JONES is professor of English at Stanford University.
