Catharine Sedgwick, Redwood: A Tale

by Catharine Maria Sedgwick (Original Author)

Redwood follows Ellen Bruce as she enters adulthood, navigating the clashing social currents of pious New England farmers, southern belles from South Carolina, slave-owning atheists from Virginia, and sophisticated Philadelphia socialites on her journey to discover the secret of her parentage and craft her own identity as a strong American woman. The novel's embedded slave narrative provides a powerful early prototype for later anti-slavery fiction. Ellen's formidable mentor, Debby Lenox, a single woman who stands over six feet tall and makes her own rules about what constitutes respectable behaviour for women, is remarkably refreshing and original almost two centuries after Sedgwick crafted her. This new edition includes a historically and theoretically informed critical introduction that situates the novel within American social and literary history, also featuring a bibliography for further research and appendices detailing the significant differences between the two nineteenth-century editions.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Catharine Maria Sedgwick was born December 28, 1789 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. As a young woman, Sedgwick took charge of a school in Lenox. She converted from Calvinism to Unitarianism, which led her to write a pamphlet denouncing religious intolerance. This further inspired her to write her first novel, A New-England Tale.

With her work much in demand, from the 1820s to the 1850s, Sedgwick made a good living writing short stories for a variety of periodicals. She died in 1867, and by the end of the 19th century, she had been relegated to near obscurity. There was a rise of male critics who deprecated women's writing as they worked to create an American literature.

Interest in Sedgwick's works and an appreciation of her contribution to American literature has been stimulated by the late 20th century's feminist movement. Beginning in the 1960s, feminist scholars began to re-evaluate women's contributions to literature and other arts, and created new frames of reference for considering their work. In addition, the advent of low-cost electronic reproductions, which became available at the end of the 20th century, made Sedgwick and other nineteenth-century authors' work more accessible for study and pleasure.

Reviews

[R.E. Admore · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is only Volume One, which means it is missing the last half of the book. The second volume is not offered on Amazon if you are wanting the ebook. It is also a poorly converted print to ebook with many print errors. Other than that, it is a great story rich in characters. I like that this was published in 1828 and the sense of history it imports. The author's book, "Hope Leslie" was also good and contained more action, where this book is more sedate and driven more by dialogue.