Maybe it's books like this that give a bad name to moral tales. I really liked the quaintness but I can see how some people might not. As much as the language isn't in fashion, and morals are declining in fashion, hormones, habits, and social goals haven't changed. And that's why I find it relevant. Nor, in my experience, have the natural reactions from such actions changed. We just tend to brush all of those emotions aside because some kinds of deep feeling are currently out of style. And I'm meandering again... ( )

Tenth Edition

A historically significant, proto-feminist work of early American literature, it stands the test of time and relative obscurity. ( )

The Coquette: or, The History of Eliza Wharton by Hannah Webster Foster

Set in 1797, based on the true story of Eliza Wharton.She finds herself falling for two suitors, Reverend Boyer and Major Sanford. Eliza is well liberated for a woman of her time, and the situation she gets herself into is quite scandalous.

She has her friends and Mother who will all be affected by Eliza's actions. Told alternating chapters, in letters written by and to each other, we know exactly how each person feels.

I found the story enjoyable, yet a bit sad (for Eliza) at the way life was back then for women and how they were treated. I highly recommend The Coquette: or, The History of Eliza Wharton to those who love historical stories (based on true life events). ( )

This is a frustrating novel, perhaps because I read it for my American Lit class and thus was forced to discuss certain aspects of the book. I found Maj. Sanford very interesting, though certainly villainous. And yet, it must be said that he certainly loved Eliza, in his own way. I mean, he took care of her. In his own way. That said, he's still a douchebag.

Eliza herself is kind of an idiot, and I don't approve at all of her actions, but I also sympathize with her. She didn't really have a lot of choices, and I think she might've been mentally unstable to begin with. In class, we talked a lot about how she didn't want to conform to society's expectations of women, but... Surely there were better ways to rebel than, y'know, THIS?

I love novels in the form of letters, but it also kind of frustrated me because I'll never REALLY know some of the things that went down. I only know what people told each other. ( )