Synopses & Reviews
Susanna Rowson--novelist, actress, playwright, poet, school founder, and early national celebritybears little resemblance to the title character in her most famous creation,
Charlotte Temple. Yet this best-selling novel has long been perceived as the prime exemplar of female passivity and subjugation in the early Republic. Marion Rust disrupts this view by placing the novel in the context of Rowson's life and other writings. Rust shows how an early form of American sentimentalism mediated the constantly shifting balance between autonomy and submission that is key to understanding both Rowson's work and the lives of early American women.
Rust proposes that Rowson found a wide female audience in the young Republic because she articulated meaningful female agency without sacrificing accountability to authority, a particularly useful skill in a nation that idealized womanhood while denying women the most basic rights. Rowson, herself an expert at personal reinvention, invited her readers, theatrical audiences, and students to value carefully crafted female self-presentation as an instrument for the attainment of greater influence. Prodigal Daughters demonstrates some of the ways in which literature and lived experience overlapped, especially for women trying to find room for themselves in an increasingly hostile public arena.
Review
"Far more than an important addition to scholarship on Rowson . . . Rust provides an important reevaluation of women's literary and public strategies during this pivotal period in American literary history."
-Journal of American History
Review
"[An] engaging and valuable study."
-Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature#
Review
"Rust's analysis of Rowson's literary works is superb."
-Maryland Historical Magazine
Review
"Far more than an important addition to scholarship on Rowson . . . Rust provides an important reevaluation of women's literary and public strategies during this pivotal period in American literary history."
Journal of American History
Review
"Marion Rust writes a wonderful narrative about why Rowson was an important woman and the impact that her writing had on the early U.S. Republic."
-BookWoman/BookMan
Review
"Rust's biographical material is persuasive. . . . [She] creates a convincing link between the women readers that Rowson . . . reached and the women activists of 1848."
-Women's Review of Books
Review
"Far more than an important addition to scholarship on Rowson . . . Rust provides an important reevaluation of women's literary and public strategies during this pivotal period in American literary history."
Journal of American History
Review
"Argues persuasively that Rowson's most famous creation is not representative of her larger body of work. . . . Certainly demonstrates Rowson's significance."
-The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Review
"Draw[ing] on some excellent research . . . [
Prodigal Daughters] is a nice example of a successful interdisciplinary work and provides us with crucial insights into the life and writings of one of the most important female authors of the new nation."
-Journal of the Early Republic
Review
"Splendidly researched. . . . Rust is especially good at parsing major critical debates in early American studies and engaging in critical dialogue. . . . Firmly persuades readers that Rowson is both extraordinary and metonymic."
-Legacy
Review
"Rust's narrative style is engaging. . . . Highly Recommended."
-Choice
Review
"Marion Rust makes a valuable contribution to the study of early American culture. . . . Providing clear and innovative readings of Rowson's substantial corpus, Rust restores Rowson to a merited position of prominence among early American writers."
--Clio
Review
"Marion Rust writes a wonderful narrative about why Rowson was an important woman and the impact that her writing had on the early U.S. Republic."
BookWoman/BookMan
About the Author
Marion Rust is assistant professor of English at the University of Kentucky.
Table of Contents
"A carefully researched, nuanced reinterpretation. . . . Challenges some widely held ideas about early Republican women's relationship to authorship and public life. . . . Essential reading for those interested in antebellum literature, the history of sentimentality, and women's history."
-American Studies "Details what is unusual, underappreciated, and historically relevant about Rowson. . . . Elegantly and candidly written and well grounded in literary scholarship, this book usefully integrates recent historical work on early republican sexuality. . . . [A] powerful book."
-Literature & History "Marion Rust makes a valuable contribution to the study of early American culture. . . . Providing clear and innovative readings of Rowson's substantial corpus, Rust restores Rowson to a merited position of prominence among early American writers."
-Clio "Argues persuasively that Rowson's most famous creation is not representative of her larger body of work. . . . Certainly demonstrates Rowson's significance."
-The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography "A radically new and exciting picture of Rowson. . . . Each of Rust's readings taken by itself is fascinating. Together, they constitute a vivid, original analysis of gender politics, literary production, and the public sphere in the new republic. . . . A pleasure to read."
-Resources for American Literary Study "Draw[ing] on some excellent research . . . [Prodigal Daughters] is a nice example of a successful interdisciplinary work and provides us with crucial insights into the life and writings of one of the most important female authors of the new nation."
-Journal of the Early Republic "Rust's analysis of Rowson's literary works is superb."
-Maryland Historical Magazine "[An] engaging and valuable study."
-Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature# "Far more than an important addition to scholarship on Rowson . . . Rust provides an important reevaluation of women's literary and public strategies during this pivotal period in American literary history."
-Journal of American History "Marks the starting point for a new era of Rowson scholarship."
-William and Mary Quarterly "Splendidly researched. . . . Rust is especially good at parsing major critical debates in early American studies and engaging in critical dialogue. . . . Firmly persuades readers that Rowson is both extraordinary and metonymic."
-Legacy "Rust's narrative style is engaging. . . . Highly Recommended."
-Choice "Rust's biographical material is persuasive. . . . [She] creates a convincing link between the women readers that Rowson . . . reached and the women activists of 1848."
-Women's Review of Books "Marion Rust writes a wonderful narrative about why Rowson was an important woman and the impact that her writing had on the early U.S. Republic."
-BookWoman/BookMan