Charlotte Temple

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Charlotte Temple is a novel authored by Susanna Rowson. It was first published in England in 1791 under the title Charlotte, A Tale of Truth[1]. The first American edition was published in 1794 and the novel proved to be "the biggest bestseller in American History until Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852"[2], and has gone through over 200 American editions.

The novel tells of the seduction of a British schoolgirl by a dashing soldier, who brings her to America and there abandons her, pregnant and ill. As such, it belongs to the seduction novel genre popular in early American literature.[3]

Charlotte Temple is also the name of the main character in this book. Charlotte is the mother of Lucy Temple, the namesake of Rowson's sequel to this book, Lucy Temple. Charlotte's seducer and Lucy's father, John Montraville, was apparently based in part on John Montresor, a first-cousin of the author.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Charlotte: A Tale of Truth - Brief Background Notes from Lecture on Rowson. Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
  2. ^ Rowson, Susanna. Charlotte Temple and Lucy Temple, Ann Douglas, ed., New York: Penguin Books, 1991, Introduction, pp. vii-viii.
  3. ^ Bontatibus, Donna R. The Seduction Novel of the Early Nation: a Call for Socio-Political Reform, East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1999.

[edit] References

  • Rowson, Susanna (1791). Charlotte. A Tale of Truth. Minerva Press, London. 
  • Rowson, Susanna (1794). Charlotte. A Tale of Truth, 1st American edition, Mathew Carey. 
  • Rowson, Susanna (1797). Charlotte Temple, 3rd American edition, Mathew Carey. 

[edit] External links

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