The best-selling Early American novel is now available in a Norton Critical Edition.
An instant bestseller when it was published in America, the sentimental novel Charlotte Temple speaks to the popularity of the genreand the public thirst for fictionfrom the early national period and beyond. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the first American edition of 1794; the authors original spellings have been maintained. It is accompanied by a detailed introduction, explanatory annotations, and A Note on the Text.An unusually rich Contexts section is thematically organized into four partsWomen in Early America: Intellect, Education, Sexuality, Reading in Early America, The American Sentimental, and Selections from Rowsons Writingsand includes works from Rowsons time to our own. Ten illustrations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are reproduced to further enrich the reading experience.
Criticism collects thirteen insightful assessments of Charlotte Temple spanning four centuries and addressing its central issues. Contributors include Matthew Carey, Samuel L. Knapp, Larzer Ziff, Jane P. Tompkins, Gareth Evans, Julia A. Stern, and Marion Rust, among others.
A Chronology of Susanna Rowsons life and works and a Selected Bibliography are also included.
