Jessamine

by Marion Harland

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408 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1873

About the author

Mary Virginia Terhune (née Hawes), also known by her penname Marion Harland, was an American author. At age twenty-three she won a $50 prize from the Southern Era periodical for her article on temperance. Encouraged, she published her first novel, Alone, to great acclaim. Despite giving birth to six children and running a household, she never stopped writing, eventually publishing twenty-five novels and three volumes of short stories, as well as numerous books on travel, biography, colonial history, and domestic guidance.

Despite her successful career, Terhune was generally unsupportive of the nascent feminism of her day. Ironically, according to Susan Koppelman in the Old Maids anthology (the source of this biographical note):

She has long been dismissed as an unimportant writer, partly because of her phenomenal output (I think many critics assume that such quantity can't be of high quality) and partly because of the fact that those who cherish the ideals she advocated do not ordinarily go looking for forgotten women writers.

Terhune's three surviving children also became authors.

Reviews

[Rhys-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Victorian novel was not exactly what I was expecting. The plot centers around Jessamine Kirke and her relationships with two men, her loyal fiance Roy Fordham and his deceptive, suave cousin, Orrin Wyllys. Jessie was not at all the character I though she would be. At first she seems to be the rather common Victorian character, the winsome, mirthful girl. But she also suffers severe bouts of depression.
The other two central characters are Mr. Wyllys and Mr. Fordham. Mr. Wyllys was asked by his cousin, Jessie's fiance, to be a friend to Jessie during Mr. Fordham's sojourn in Europe. But Mr. Fordham has no idea of his cousin's true character. Wyllys is a careless ladies' man who schemes to entangle Jessie's affections.
Roy Fordham may have been the most likable character in the novel, though at one point he made a decision I didn't like, but he later realized his mistake and felt remorse. Of the minor characters, my favorite was Mrs. Baxter.
The writing style was good but didn't stand out to me. And I expected there to be more Christian content in this book. In that respect, it was nothing like the stories of, for example, contemporary writers like Augusta Evans Wilson or E. P. Roe. But at least there were plenty of flowers.