The Coquette (1797) is a novel by American author Hannah Webster Foster. Published anonymously, The Coquette was one of eighteenth-century America's bestselling books. Based on the story of Elizabeth Whitman, a New England socialite whose death during the birth of her illegitimate child was a sensational topic in newspapers at the time, Foster's novel attempts to turn tragedy and gossip into a topic of serious moral and social discussion. The Coquette both empathizes with its main character and promotes the need for educating women, making it a groundbreaking work of early feminism and an important example of the epistolary form, a popular style of eighteenth century fiction which uses letters between characters as narration. Having been released from an unhappy marriage by the death of her husband, Eliza Wharton-the daughter of a prominent clergyman-finds herself hoping for more from life. As she begins to envision the independent life she desires, two competing suitors threaten to disrupt her plans before she can even realize them. Rev. J. Boyer is a kind but unappealing man who fails to inspire a sense of romance in Eliza, while Major Peter Sanford, a known womanizer, is an exciting and unpredictable man who manages to pique Eliza's interest before marrying another woman. As she loses sight of her newfound sense of independence, Eliza becomes a mere object of male affection, a woman to be seduced, but not respected. When an affair with Sanford goes terribly wrong, and finding herself with nowhere to turn, Eliza's life slowly falls to pieces before our eyes. The Coquette is a tragic novel with a complex message. While it critiques Eliza's moral failures, it also deconstructs society's attempts to blame women for the ways in which men manipulate and abandon them. The solution, according to Hannah Webster Foster, must be to educate women so that they will not only be given the tools for independence, but the ability to succeed either without men or as their rational equals. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Coquette (1797) is a novel by American author Hannah Webster Foster. Published anonymously, The Coquette was one of eighteenth-century America's bestselling books. Based on the story of Elizabeth Whitman, a New England socialite whose death during the birth of her illegitimate child was a sensational topic in newspapers at the time, Foster's novel attempts to turn tragedy and gossip into a topic of serious moral and social discussion. The Coquette both empathizes with its main character and promotes the need for educating women, making it a groundbreaking work of early feminism and an important example of the epistolary form, a popular style of eighteenth century fiction which uses letters between characters as narration. Having been released from an unhappy marriage by the death of her husband, Eliza Wharton-the daughter of a prominent clergyman-finds herself hoping for more from life. As she begins to envision the independent life she desires, two competing suitors threaten to disrupt her plans before she can even realize them. Rev. J. Boyer is a kind but unappealing man who fails to inspire a sense of romance in Eliza, while Major Peter Sanford, a known womanizer, is an exciting and unpredictable man who manages to pique Eliza's interest before marrying another woman. As she loses sight of her newfound sense of independence, Eliza becomes a mere object of male affection, a woman to be seduced, but not respected. When an affair with Sanford goes terribly wrong, and finding herself with nowhere to turn, Eliza's life slowly falls to pieces before our eyes. The Coquette is a tragic novel with a complex message. While it critiques Eliza's moral failures, it also deconstructs society's attempts to blame women for the ways in which men manipulate and abandon them. The solution, according to Hannah Webster Foster, must be to educate women so that they will not only be given the tools for independence, but the ability to succeed either without men or as their rational equals. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Hannah Webster Foster based The Coquette on the true story of Elizabeth Whitman, an unmarried woman who died in childbirth in New England. Fictionalising Whitman's experiences in her heroine, Eliza Wharton, Foster created a compelling narrative of seduction that was hugely successful with readers. The Boarding School, a less widely known work by Foster, is an experimental text, part epistolary novel and part conduct book. Together, the novels explore the realities of women's lives in early America. The critical introduction and appendices to this edition, which explore female friendship and the education of women in the novels, frame Foster as more than a purveyor of the sentimental novel, and re-evaluate her placement in American literary history.

Written in epistolary form and drawn from actual events, Brown’s The Power of Sympathy (1789) and Foster’s The Coquette (1797) were two of the earliest novels published in the United States. Both novels reflect the eighteenth-century preoccupation with the role of women as safekeepers of the young country’s morality.

Published anonymously in 1797, Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette grabbed American interest with its ripped-from-the-headlines story of sex and scandal. A steady best seller for decades, the seduction novel was passed down through generations; indeed, its heroine became better known than the book's author. A year later, Foster's lesser-known follow-up, The Boarding School, provided an equally compelling portrait of women at the turn of the nineteenth century in the same epistolary form. Both novels can now be read in conversation with each other in this new Norton Critical Edition based on the respective first edition texts; the author's original spelling, punctuation, and usage are retained while obvious printer's errors are corrected. The texts are joined with a detailed introduction to Foster's legacy and Elizabeth Whitman's life along with explanatory annotations and a note on the text. "Sources and Contexts" unearths a wealth of original material about the environment the works were produced in and the real-life people who inspired them. The three sections, "On Coquetry," "The Life and Death of Elizabeth Whitman," and "The Nineteenth-Century Legacy," include new and corrected transcriptions of Whitman's letters to Ruth and Joel Barlow, an inventory of items found at Whitman's room at her death, popular representations of Elizabeth Whitman, and unauthorized sequels to The Coquette. Seven illustrations, including three of Eliza Wharton, are included to enrich the reading experience. "Criticism" brings together nine diverse contemporary interpretations. Contributors include Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Claire C. Pettengill, Julia A. Stern, Gillian Brown, Jeffrey H. Richards, and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, among others. Chronologies of the lives of Hannah Webster Foster and Elizabeth Whitman are included along with a Selected Bibliography.

Title: The coquette, or, The history of Eliza Wharton: a novel founded on fact.Author: Hannah Webster FosterPublisher: Gale, Sabin Americana Description: Based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana, Sabin Americana, 1500--1926 contains a collection of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, from the time of their discovery to the early 1900s. Sabin Americana is rich in original accounts of discovery and exploration, pioneering and westward expansion, the U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, religious history and more.Sabin Americana offers an up-close perspective on life in the western hemisphere, encompassing the arrival of the Europeans on the shores of North America in the late 15th century to the first decades of the 20th century. Covering a span of over 400 years in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, this collection highlights the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary opinions and momentous events of the time. It provides access to documents from an assortment of genres, sermons, political tracts, newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, literature and more.Now for the first time, these high-quality digital scans of original works are available via print-on-demand, making them readily accessible to libraries, students, independent scholars, and readers of all ages.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++SourceLibrary: Huntington LibraryDocumentID: SABCP04662600CollectionID: CTRG04-B33PublicationDate: 17970101SourceBibCitation: Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to AmericaNotes: In the form of letters. An epistolary novel by Hannah Webster Foster based on the alleged relationship between Elizabeth Whitman and Pierpont Edwards.Collation: 261 p

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Consisting Of Information, Instruction And Advice, Calculated To Improve The Manners And Form The Character Of Young Ladies. To Which Is Added A Collection Of Letters.

Title: The coquette, or, The history of Eliza Wharton: a novel: founded on fact.Author: Hannah Webster FosterPublisher: Gale, Sabin Americana Description: Based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana, Sabin Americana, 1500--1926 contains a collection of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, from the time of their discovery to the early 1900s. Sabin Americana is rich in original accounts of discovery and exploration, pioneering and westward expansion, the U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, religious history and more.Sabin Americana offers an up-close perspective on life in the western hemisphere, encompassing the arrival of the Europeans on the shores of North America in the late 15th century to the first decades of the 20th century. Covering a span of over 400 years in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, this collection highlights the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary opinions and momentous events of the time. It provides access to documents from an assortment of genres, sermons, political tracts, newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, literature and more.Now for the first time, these high-quality digital scans of original works are available via print-on-demand, making them readily accessible to libraries, students, independent scholars, and readers of all ages.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++SourceLibrary: Huntington LibraryDocumentID: SABCP04662000CollectionID: CTRG04-B31PublicationDate: 18240101SourceBibCitation: Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to AmericaNotes: An epistolary novel by Hannah Webster Foster based on the alleged relationship between Elizabeth Whitman and Pierpont Edwards. In the form of letters.Collation: 303 p.; 15 cm

Consisting Of Information, Instruction And Advice, Calculated To Improve The Manners And Form The Character Of Young Ladies. To Which Is Added A Collection Of Letters.

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Consisting Of Information, Instruction And Advice, Calculated To Improve The Manners And Form The Character Of Young Ladies. To Which Is Added A Collection Of Letters.

Consisting Of Information, Instruction And Advice, Calculated To Improve The Manners And Form The Character Of Young Ladies. To Which Is Added A Collection Of Letters.