Female Quixotism: Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and Extravagant Adventures of Dorcasina SheldonOxford University Press, 1992 - 332 pàgines The Early American Women Writers series offers rare works of fiction by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women, each reprinted in its entirety, each introduced by Cathy N. Davidson, who places the novel in an historical and literary perspective. Ranging from serious cautionary tales about moral corruption to amusing and trenchant social satire, these books provide today's reader with a unique window into the earliest American popular fiction and way of life. First published in 1801, Female Quixotism is a boisterous, rollicking anti-romance and literary satire. It takes place in the fictional village of L---, Pennsylvania, where its central character Dorcas Sheldon--who styles herself the romantic "Dorcasina"--sets out on a quixotic quest for the kind of romantic love portrayed in her favorite English novels. Having rejected the prosaic yet honorable advances of her first suitor, "Lysander," Dorcasina narrowly escapes marriage to a series of unscrupulous rogues interested mostly in her considerable fortune. Moving from one misadventure to another, the heroine's journey ends in a lonely old age bereft of romantic illusion. Female Quixotism was written during a period of self-definition for the fledgling American republic, and offers a telling glimpse of gender, race, and class issues--as volatile then as they are today. Its woman's-eye view of the life and literature of the age provides a tragicomic parody of the limited choices available to women in a society dedicated to the principle that all men are created equal. |
Altres edicions - Mostra-ho tot
Female Quixotism: Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and ..., Volum 1 Tabitha Tenney Visualització completa - 1825 |
Female Quixotism: Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and Extravagant ... Tabitha Tenney Visualització completa - 1829 |
Female Quixotism: Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and ..., Volum 1 Tabitha Tenney Visualització completa - 1841 |
Frases i termes més freqüents
acquainted adventure affection agreeable answer appearance arbour arrived artful O'Connor astonishment barber begged Betty Betty's Brown captain Barry chamber charming clothes consent Cumberland daughter dear delight desired Don Quixote door dress endeavoured engaged entered exclaimed expected eyes father favour fear Female Quixotism gentleman Giles greatly grove hand happiness Harriot heart heaven hope idea imagination immediately impatience informed inquired James John John Brown lady length letter lover Lysander ma'am madam manner marriage marry matter maʼam mind Miss Dorcasina Miss Sheldon Miss Stanly mistress Montague morning mortification Nanny never night novels O'Connor observed passed passion person Philadelphia Philander pleased pleasure present pretended received replied Dorcasina request retired romantic Samuel Tenney Scipio servants Seymore silent Sir Charles Grandison situation soon soul Stanly's supposed Tabitha tell tender Tenney thing thought took walked wife wish woman young