19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Coquettry in Early America, June 7, 2002
This review is from: The Coquette (Early American Women Writers) (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.
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Women show power and weakness in Revolutionary America, September 28, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Coquette (Early American Women Writers) (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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Coquette, September 9, 2009
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
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