xkwright's review
3.0
Read for grad school. Am interesting book to analyze, but not one I'd recommend just for kicks.
kienie's review against another edition
2.0
To be fair, I read this book for a class about four years ago, and forgot all about it, except for a lingering sense of exasperation. I did not know that it was based on a real story. If I had, I'd be a bit less annoyed with the main characters, and instead be a lot more annoyed with society. Maybe I shouldn't say anything. I barely remember the plot, and I've forgotten the character names. But the idea of having to reread this is completely unappealing.
musingswithmiranda's review
4.0
I had not heard of this novel before, but I had to read it for an American literature class. Overall, it was pretty enjoyable. I really appreciated my class discussions as well; I think they really enhanced the novel and helped explore what it might mean.
Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette is a tragic tale of Eliza Wharton seeking freedom and independence for the first time. Eliza is also being pursued by two men, Reverend J. Boyer and Major Peter Sanford. The story is told in a series of letters, so we get to see multiple perspectives. Eliza hopes to enjoy independence before settling down, but her friends have other ideas of what she should be doing and who she should marry. I really enjoyed how this novel discusses marriage and wealth. In that regard, it reminded me a lot of Jane Austen’s Emma and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.
In my literature class, we talked about how this novel is actually a metaphor for the birth of democracy. It was interesting to play around with this idea and what it meant for the story as a whole. We saw Eliza as early America and the male suitors as the two political parties. These ideas were strengthened because we also read some of the Federalists Papers beforehand. I appreciated how Foster seems to use letters as a metaphor for democracy while also considering the effects of social conventions.
Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette is a tragic tale of Eliza Wharton seeking freedom and independence for the first time. Eliza is also being pursued by two men, Reverend J. Boyer and Major Peter Sanford. The story is told in a series of letters, so we get to see multiple perspectives. Eliza hopes to enjoy independence before settling down, but her friends have other ideas of what she should be doing and who she should marry. I really enjoyed how this novel discusses marriage and wealth. In that regard, it reminded me a lot of Jane Austen’s Emma and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.
In my literature class, we talked about how this novel is actually a metaphor for the birth of democracy. It was interesting to play around with this idea and what it meant for the story as a whole. We saw Eliza as early America and the male suitors as the two political parties. These ideas were strengthened because we also read some of the Federalists Papers beforehand. I appreciated how Foster seems to use letters as a metaphor for democracy while also considering the effects of social conventions.
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