|
Back to Supplemental
Page
Primary Texts
I have a mixed bag here: an annotated list of novels, and links to other period sources.
Annotated List of Novels
It goes without saying (though here I am saying it) that a great source for further reading is your textbook, which is filled with a judicious sampling of the important texts of the period. However, since it is an anthology, space limitations mean that it does not include many examples of the most popular genre of the nineteenth century: the novel.
Therefore, I've assembled a short list of some well-known popular novels that (after you read them) will make you the star of any American Literature class.
Cummins, Maria Susana The Lamplighter (1854)
A "Domestic" novel which tells the story of a street urchin and the angelic Lamplighter of the title who helps her see the error of her ways. It also has elements of adventure texts (boats sink) and hints of class divisions.
Lippard, George. Quaker City (1845)
The most popular antebellum American novelist before Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Lippard's work is little read today, yet its distillation of the underlying cultural beliefs and obsessions of the period best captures the welter of popular thought behind the American Renaissance.
His early experience as a Philadelphia legal clerk and reporter exposed him to the inequities and corruption of nineteenth century urban life. Viewing fiction as a vehicle for reform, he committed himself to exposing the seamy underside of the cities by confronting topics -- the abuses of capitalism and the upper class, the corruption of the judicial system, socialism, sexuality, abortion, adultery, occultism, violence and murder -- with a verve and directness remarkable for its time.
Based on a true story, Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall, wove elements of sensation, pornographic, reform, temperance, occultist, and nativist fiction, into a labyrinthine plot centered around the seduction of Mary Arlington, a naive young girl, by Gustavus Lorrimer, a wealthy libertine, and the murderous revenge of Byrnewood, her brother. The Monk Hall of the title, once a convent, is now a private club where bankers, clergymen, lawyers and the wealthy remove their pious masks and revel in drink, gambling and illicit sex, all under the watchful eye of the door-keeper, Devil-bug. Filled with trap doors and secret passages, the Hall symbolizes both the corruption of contemporary life, and its ability to hide behind a genteel facade. Its many subplots (a hallmark of Lippard's narrative method), ranging from social climbing via adultery and murder to the establishment of a religious cult, coupled with the continual appearance of "heaving bosoms," assured the novel's success. Alternately attacked and praised, its lurid rendition of city life prompted a flood of imitative "City" novels.
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick (1851)
I could say it's a whale of a story - but I won't. A central text in American fiction because it raises so many themes of the antebellum period: from slavery, to sexuality, to science it's all in there.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
We've read a few excerpts, but the full impact of the novel can only be appreciated by reading in sum. A powerful novel which demonstrates the ways language and narrative can manipulate emotions.
Warner, Susan Wide Wide World (1850) An early domestic novel which repeats the pattern of an orphaned girl who gradually learns she must submit to God's will. Its power is derived from the fully drawn portrait of the heroine, Ellen Montgomery, and the narrative drive, which keeps you turning the page. In its detailing of the women's domestic duties, it's one of those "window" texts that shed light on the habits and culture of the period.
Links To Primary Sources
These sources are saved in Adobe Acrobat files. While you probably have the reader installed on your computer, if the link does not open, go to the Adobe website, install the free reader, and click again. These are rather large files and may take a while to load so be patient. Save to your computer for offline viewing.
Sensation Tales
James Ingraham's "The Odd Fellow" and "Foraging Peter" (1846)
Two examples of nineteenth century "sensation" stories. Think of them as the "Based on a true story" crime/adventure tales of today. This genre was very popular with readers, but since they were a guilty pleasure, they were seldom mentioned in "polite" circles.
Annuals
Note: this take a while to load Field's Scrap Book part 1 and part 2 (1854)
An excerpt from an eclectic collection of texts -- popular format during the 19th century. Since copyright laws, particularly for the foreign press, were not enforced or non-existent, publishers could and did copy texts from a variety of sources and combine them in annuals and gift books. These extracts consisted of didactic pieces reminding its readers that: women should be subservient, children should be obedient, and men honest; a benevolent God watched over them all; there were others who shared your grief in the loss of a loved one; and those who break the cultural norms by intemperance, gambling, venery, etc., will suffer a horrible death. These moral messages (with others of the same ilk) spoke to the middle-class desire for improvement and entertainment. They also included amusing anecdotes or "singular" stories of adventure and travelogues designed to acquaint people with other lands. This combination of instruction and delight meant the books sold like hotcakes.
I've included two sections here that cover the first 100 (or so) pages of a 500+ page text. Together, they should give you an idea of what the text offered readers.
Note: this file takes a while to load The Token and Atlantic Souvenir (1836)
Like the Scrapbook noted above, this is a collection of poems, images and stories intended as a gift book. The Token was one of the most popular series of the "Gift Annuals."
I've included the first 50 pages (or so) of the text, along with stories by an unnamed author, "The Man of Adamant" (it also includes his "The Great Carbuncle"). This same author later accrued fame by writing a novel called The Scarlet Letter. I've also included one story "The Tiara" which comes before "The Adamant Man" to give a perspective on Hawthorne's contemporaries.
I've also included a sketch entitled "Mrs. Hutchinson" by Hawthorne, which may illuminate her symbolic use in The Scarlet Letter.
Reading texts these books is like looking into the window of an idealized 19th century American house - with an emphasis on the word idealized. These works often tell us more about the aspirations and desires of a culture than the reality. They represent what arbiters of behavior - writers, clergy, politicians, publishers - deemed as correct and productive. The reality can be found in the journals, diaries and letters, which show that the house was not always in order - and as the excerpt below shows, often had peepholes.
Upon returning from September 1850 Sunday morning service at Broadway Tabernacle, a New Yorker named William Hoffman, who was punctilious about his religious observances, had the "pleasure" to observe through a peephole in his room "the perfect female form of the two Miss Whitings, young girls or ladies about 17 & 19 years old . . . for about 20 minutes with every part of their bodies exposed." Without compunction, he notes that he attended the Tabernacle again that evening (Saum 35).
From Saum, Lewis O. Saum. The Popular Mood of Pre-Civil War America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980.
I wonder what our Puritan friend Bradford would do if he got a hold of Hoffman . . . .
Last Revised August 2002
David Bordelon