The coquette, and The boarding school : authoritative texts sources and contexts, criticism / Hannah Webster Foster ; edited by Jennifer Harris, Bryan Waterman.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Foster, Hannah Webster, 1759-1840.

Contributor:

• Harris, Jennifer, 1971-
• Waterman, Bryan, 1970-

Series:

• Norton critical edition
• A Norton critical edition

Language:

English

Genre:

• Fiction.

Physical Description:

xxv, 435 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W. W. Norton & Co., [2013]

Summary:

• Published anonymously in 1797, Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette grabbed American interest with its ripped-from-the-headlines story of sex and scandal, based on the case of Elizabeth Whitman, daughter of a prominent Hartford minister. A steady seller for decades, the seduction novel was passed down through generations; indeed, its heroine, Eliza Wharton, became better known than the book's author. A year later, Foster's lesser-known follow-up, The Boarding School, provided another compelling portrait of women at the turn of the nineteenth century in a similar epistolary form. The two novels can now be read in conversation with each other in this new Norton Critical Edition, which is 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 in which the works were produced 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, an inventory of items found in Whitman's room at her death, popular representations of 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, Elizabeth Hewitt, and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, among others.
• Chronologies of the lives of Hannah Webster Foster and Elizabeth Whitman are included along with a Selected Bibliography. Book jacket.

Contents:

• The Texts of The Coquette and The Boarding School
• The Coquette 3
• The Boarding School 135
• Sources and Contexts
• On Coquetry 265
• A modern Coquette's account of herself / Anonymous 265
• For the Massachusetts Gazette. On Coquetry / Anonymous 266
• The Life and Death of Elizabeth Whitman 269
• The Letters of Elizabeth Whitman to Joel and Ruth Barlow, 1779-1783 269
• Inventory of Whitman's Belongings on Her Death 300
• The Elizabeth Whitman Paper Trail / Bryan Waterman Waterman, Bryan 302
• From The Power of Sympathy / William Hill Brown Brown, William Hill 307
• A Pathetick Fragment. By the late unfortunate Miss Whitman / Anonymous 315
• The Nineteenth-Century Legacy 317
• From The New England Coquette / J. Horatio Nichols Nichols, J. Horatio 317
• From Clara Wharton; A Sequel to Eliza Wharton / William R. Hayden Hayden, William R. 321
• Tragedy in Tale of Love / Anonymous 327
• From The Romance of the Association / Caroline Wells Healey Dall Dall, Caroline Wells Healey 332
• Criticism
• From Domesticating 'Virtue': Coquettes and Revolutionaries in Young America / Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll 345
• [Female Friendship in Foster's Novels] / Claire C. Pettengill Pettengill, Claire C. 353
• [Live Burial and the Tyrannies of Voice in The Coquette] / Julia A. Stern Stern, Julia A. 363
• From Consent, Coquetry, and Consequences / Gillian Brown Brown, Gillian 378
• [Theater, Sexuality, and National Virtue in Foster's Novels] / Jeffrey H. Richards Richards, Jeffrey H. 394
• [The Dialogics of Sisterly Advice in The Boarding School] / Gwendolyn Audrey Foster Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey 402
• [Foster's Epistolarity] / Elizabeth Hewitt Hewitt, Elizabeth 409
• [Gender in the Seduction Tales of the Late Eighteenth Century] / Rodney Hessinger Hessinger, Rodney 414
• The Coquette and Pseudonymous Attribution / Blevin Shelnutt Shelnutt, Blevin 419.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Contains:

Foster, Hannah Webster, 1759-1840. Boarding school.

ISBN:

• 9780393931679
• 0393931676

OCLC:

793099534