Married or Single?

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Married or Single?

Catharine Maria Sedgwick
Edited and with an introduction by Deborah Gussman

Legacies of Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers Series

528 pages

Paperback

July 2015

978-0-8032-7192-0

$30.00 Add to Cart
eBook (EPUB)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

July 2015

978-0-8032-7497-6

$30.00 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

July 2015

978-0-8032-7499-0

$30.00 Add to Cart

About the Book

Married or Single?, published in 1857, was Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s final novel and a fitting climax to the career of one of antebellum America’s first and most successful woman writers. Insisting on women’s right to choose whether to marry, Married or Single? rejects the stigma of spinsterhood and offers readers a wider range of options for women in society, recognizing their need and ability to determine the course of their lives.

 

Sedgwick’s touching, witty, and shrewdly observant novel centers on Grace Herbert, a New York City socialite who must negotiate the marriage market and also learn to develop her own character and take control of her own destiny. The story merges a wide range of popular American literary forms—including the seduction novel, the conversion narrative, the novel of education, and social reform fiction—and provides a window on many of the cultural and political anxieties of the 1850s beyond marriage, including immigration, slavery, and urban poverty. Sedgwick’s lifelong concern with women’s duties to the nation as citizens is demonstrated through her depiction of exemplary women of various backgrounds and circumstances who illustrate the idea that becoming a worthy human being is more important than becoming a wife, especially in a democratic society.

Author Bio

Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789–1867) was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Her career spanned more than fifty years, six major novels, and more than one hundred short stories. Deborah Gussman is an associate professor of literature at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. She is a founding and executive board member of the Catherine Maria Sedgwick Society.

Praise

"A classic that is at once both an engrossing read and an erudite champion of women's rights, Married or Single? is highly recommended especially for public and college library literature and women's studies shelves."—Midwest Book Review

“A modern edition of Sedgwick’s final novel is long overdue, and Deborah Gussman is its ideal editor. Gussman’s introduction will reflect and forward current scholarly concerns.”—Mary Kelley, author of Learning to Stand and Speak: Women, Education, and Public Life in America’s Republic

“This is a very teachable and useful book and should appeal to scholars, libraries, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates.”—Martha Cutter, author of Unruly Tongue: Identity and Voice in American Women’s Writing, 1850–1930


Table of Contents

Acknowledgments                                         

Editor’s Introduction                                      

A Note on the Text                                         

Married or Single?                                         

Notes                                                              

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