Scan barcode
A review by lukescalone
Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson, Cathy N. Davidson
3.0
If you have sex, you will get pregnant, and die.
This book is so melodramatic, I love it. It's like watching a Colombian telenovela. Say what you want about Rowson's writing, it isn't in the least bit wooden, and there are constant events that make matters worse. I think there's a feminist case that can be made about the necessity for women's liberation based around what we see here, but few critics have seen it as a feminist novel. Instead, Rowson maintains the status quo. Although Charlotte is a sympathetic victim, there's also the suggestion that if she hadn't eloped, everything would have been fine. Nevertheless, all of the people who pressured her to elope--Belcour, La Rue, Montraville--face brutal ends as well. Belcour gets stabbed, La Rue's husband leaves here, and Montraville lives out his life with constant bouts of melancholy and shame.
Having gone through more than 200 editions, there's little here that I could say that others haven't, but this was eminently readable in a way that most 18th century novels are not. Love it.
This book is so melodramatic, I love it. It's like watching a Colombian telenovela. Say what you want about Rowson's writing, it isn't in the least bit wooden, and there are constant events that make matters worse. I think there's a feminist case that can be made about the necessity for women's liberation based around what we see here, but few critics have seen it as a feminist novel. Instead, Rowson maintains the status quo. Although Charlotte is a sympathetic victim, there's also the suggestion that if she hadn't eloped, everything would have been fine. Nevertheless, all of the people who pressured her to elope--Belcour, La Rue, Montraville--face brutal ends as well. Belcour gets stabbed, La Rue's husband leaves here, and Montraville lives out his life with constant bouts of melancholy and shame.
Having gone through more than 200 editions, there's little here that I could say that others haven't, but this was eminently readable in a way that most 18th century novels are not. Love it.