A New-England Tale; Or, Sketches of New-England Character and Manners

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Oxford University Press, Sep 28, 1995 - Fiction - 208 pages
The Early American Women Writers series offers rare works of fiction by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women, each reprinted it its entirety, each with a foreword by General Editor Cathy N. Davidson, who places the novel in a historical and literary perspective. Ranging from serious cautionary tales about moral corruption to amusing and trenchant social satire, these books provide today's reader with a unique window into the earliest American popular fiction and way of life. Written in 1822, A New-England Tale is the first of Catharine Sedgwick's twenty novels in addition to the one hundred short magazine pieces she published in her lifetime. The story of an orphan girl in rural New England and the moral and religious trials she faces as she grows up, this intriguing portrait provides a unique look at the religious and political climate of this crucial period in America's development as a country. Addressing many of the complex religious, political, and philosophical issues of the time, as well as theoretical issues of the woman writer, A New-England Tale is a classic nineteenth-century story of a young woman's moral and material triumphs.

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Page 112 - 11 begin it, — Ding, dong, bell. All. Ding, dong, bell. Bass. So may the outward shows be least themselves : The world is still deceived with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being season'd with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil ? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple, but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts...
Page 4 - In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States. entitled, " an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an act, entitled, " an act, supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned...
Page 146 - But in these cases We still have judgment here ; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor ; this even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice To our own lips.
Page 17 - Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Page 4 - IDE, of the said District, hath deposited in this office, the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit : " Inductive Grammar, designed for beginners. By an Instructer." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States...
Page 88 - Tell them, I AM, JEHOVAH said To MOSES; while earth heard in dread, And, smitten to the heart, At once above, beneath, around, All Nature, without voice or sound, Replied, "O LORD, THOU ART.
Page 4 - LANG hae thought, my youthfu' friend, A something to have sent you, Tho' it should serve nae ither end Than just a kind memento ; But how the subject theme may gang, Let time and chance determine ; Perhaps, it may turn out a sang, Perhaps, turn out a sermon.
Page 99 - When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever: 8 But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore. 9 For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
Page 156 - Never," replied Godwin the preacher. "Then I am safe," said the man whose last years had been stained by cruelty and tyranny; "for I am sure I was once in a state of grace.

About the author (1995)

Cathy N. Davidson is Professor of English at Duke University and editor of American Literature. She is co-editor of The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States and author of Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America. Victoria Clements is a professor of English at the College of Southern Maryland and co-editor of Catharine Maria Sedgwick: Critical Perspectives.

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