Description
Book SynopsisMarried 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 formsincluding the seduction novel, the conversion narrative, the novel of education, and social reform fictionand provides a window on many of the cultural and political anxieties of the 1850s beyond marriage, including immigration, slavery, and urban poverty. Sedgwick'
Trade Review"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 ContentsAcknowledgments
Editor’s Introduction
A Note on the Text
Married or Single?
Notes
