This document provides an introduction and overview of the novel as a form, early American novels, and the novel "The Coquette". It discusses how novels emerged as a private reading experience and were initially seen as dangerous. The first truly American novel is considered to be "The Power of Sympathy" published in 1789. "The Coquette" was a popular epistolary novel from 1797 that tells the story of a woman who has romantic relationships with two men and dies after giving birth to a stillborn baby. The document provides context around the origins and themes of early American novels.

1. A Novel Idea
an introduction to the novel,
the Early American Novel,
and The Coquette

6. There is a great deal of
solemn discussion about
The Novel.
In fact, every novel is an
answer to the ancient plea,
“Tell us a story.”
~ Pamela Brown

7. When we discuss a definition of
what exactly a novel is,
we are discussing how the story is
packaged – what form it takes.

8. Define, please…
Webster’s says a novel is “a fictitious
prose narrative of considerable length
and complexity, portraying characters
and usually presenting a sequential
organization of action and scenes.”
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary

9. It’s lacking
“considerable
length.”

10. Also lacking
“considerable
length.”
This is called a
“novella” – a
little novel.

11. It’s poetry,
not prose.

12. It’s true, so
it’s fact, not
fiction.

13. What Webster’s
doesn’t tell us is that
the novel also creates
in the reader the
feeling that he or she
is there in the story
watching the action.

14. Novels create in us the feeling
that we are experiencing a life
separate from our own.

15. Part of this is because, unlike plays or
epic poems, the novel was intended to
be a private experience between the
reader and the book.

16. A novel can be read over the course
of days, weeks, or even years.
Although read by many people,
the experience of reading a novel
is intensely personal.

17. That is why
people have
such different
reactions to
novels;
a tremendous
part of what
you get out of
a novel is what
you bring to
the novel.

18. Marion C.
Garretty said,
“A novel is the
chance to try on
a different life
for size.”

19. A long period of
development preceded
the emergence of what we
would call the novel in the
English in the 18th Century.

20. Among the predecessors to the
novel were romances like the
legends of King Arthur.

21. “Yea, and if some god shall wreck me in the wine-dark deep,
even so I will endure…
For already have I suffered full much,
and much have I toiled in perils of waves and war.
Let this be added to the tale of those.”
“Be strong, saithmy heart; I am a soldier;
I have seen worse sights than this.”
“Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers
all that he wrought and endured.”
And epic poems like
The Odyssey by Homer.

22. Although your
parents would
probably rather have
you read a novel
than do just about
anything else…

23. (In fact, it’s possible you get out of chores
by saying that you have to read
something, you know, for school.)

24. Back then, novels were seen as
dangerous and corrupting.
Looking at this quote, let’s
substitute the term “rap music”
for “romances, novels, and plays”
and see what we come up with:

25. “The free access which
many young people have to
rap music romances, novels,
and plays has poisoned the
mind and corrupted the
morals of many a promising
youth; and prevented
others from improving their
minds in useful knowledge.”
~ Enos Hitchcock

28. Also, girls (to
whom the novels
were aimed) should
have been doing
something better
with their time.

29. Another argument against novels was that
reading about all of these romantic, heroic
men might create expectations in young
girls that real men couldn’t meet.

30. Another crucial argument against the reading
of novels was that unlike the Bible or sermons,
which were interpreted or needed to be
interpreted by an authority figure, reading a
novel was an individual experience.

31. The person reading the novel didn’t
need someone else to tell the reader
what it meant. A number of people
used to having authority and control
over what kinds of things people read
were very uncomfortable with this idea.

33. You could find as many
DIFFERENT
ANSWERS
to what the first truly American
novel was as you found people to ask.

34. If you used the criteria
that the novel had to be
written by a person born in America
published in America
set in America and
written about American issues

35. Then there would be a clear
FRONTRUNNER.

36. The WINNER
The Power of Sympathy
William Hill Brown, published in 1789

37. It’s a seduction novel, meaning
that it features a naïve girl who
is seduced by a bad guy.
She becomes pregnant or
otherwise has her virtue sullied
in some way, and then dies.

38. It’s an epistolary novel, meaning
that it is written in the form of a
series of letters {epistles}.
This was a very popular style
of writing at the time..

39. forms were
4
common among
Early American Novels.

40. 1 Sentimental.
These were novels based on sentimentality,
or feelings, as opposed to logic and reason.
In Sentimental novels, the emphasis is
on the goodness of humanity.

41. 2 Picaresque.
Picaresque novels focus on a hero, usually a
trickster, who has a series of adventures.

42. 3 Gothic.
Gothic novels featured castles, ruined abbeys,
superstition, and maniacal people who looked
deceptively normal from the outside.

43. 4 Frontier.
Frontier stories, like The Last of the Mohicans,
were filled with nostalgia. They attempted to unify
the spirit of what it meant to be American.

44. Lastly, let’s look
at the novel
we’ll be reading.

45. The Coquette
written by Hannah Webster Foster
and published anonymously in 1797

46. Foster’s
epistolary novel
was very
popular for a
long time,
remaining in
print for thirty
years after its
initial
publication.

47. WARNING:
SPOILERS
FOLLOW
But we promise that they’ll help
you enjoy the novel even more.

49. Based on the story of the real life
Elizabeth Whitman, it tells the story of
Eliza Wharton, a girl from a good family
who falls in love with a man who is
secretly engaged to someone else.

50. BORING!
She’s got another suitor, Boyer,
who is a minister, but he’s not as
exciting as Sanford, the one who is
engaged to someone else .

51. Her friends
try to warn
her about
Sanford,
but she just
won’t
listen.

52. His relationship with Eliza continues even
after his marriage, and Eliza dies of a fever
after giving birth to a dead baby.

53. Because the
novel is told in
epistolary
form, you will
have to look
to the end of
the letter to
see who is
writing.

54. Don’t
complain
about this, as
you probably
don’t put your
own name at
the top of
letters you
write, either.

55. So if you’re
READY
Let’s read!

56. To get your very own
FREE COPY
Just click
gutenberg.org/ebooks/12431

57. Credits:
Images from Pixabay except as otherwise noted.
Images with text embedded created with Photofunia or Picmonkey.
Image on Slide 9 by Jonathan Lin,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonolist/646875125,
Black & white library image by Daniel Dalton on flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126522904@N02/14859717093
Black & white young woman reading byTimo Neumann
https://www.flickr.com/photos/timojneumann/12140057234
Power of Sympathy image courtesy of William Reese Company
Man on Telly by Lubs Mary
https://www.flickr.com/photos/meaning_absence/3234862031/sizes/o/in/photos
tream/
Flirt by debaird https://www.flickr.com/photos/debaird/114275823
Sepia-toned books by Hellmy https://www.flickr.com/photos/hellmy/4273321047
All Flickr images shared with this license:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0.
The design of some of the slides was based on designs by @ned_potter.