In this Book
- Christine: Or Woman's Trials and Triumphs
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: University of Nebraska Press
summary
When Laura Curtis Bullard wrote the novel Christine in 1856, she created one of antebellum America’s most radical heroines: a woman’s rights leader. Addressing the major social, political, and cultural issues surrounding women from within an unusually overt feminist framework for its time, Christine openly challenges a social and legal system that denies women full and equal rights. Christine defies her family, rejects marriage, and leaves a job as a teacher to embark on her career, rewriting the script for a successful nineteenth-century heroine. Along the way, she recreates domesticity on her own terms, helping other young women gain economic independence so that they, too, have the autonomy to make their own choices in love and life. One of the triumphs of the novel is the author’s ability to create a sympathetic heroine and a fast-paced plot that intertwines vivid scenes of suicide, destitution, and an insane asylum with theoretical and political discussions—so skillfully that the novel successfully appealed to otherwise hesitant middle-class readers.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. vii-viii
- Introduction
- pp. ix-xlv
- Christine or Woman's Trials and Triumphs
- 1. The Farmhouse
- pp. 1-11
- 2. The Village
- pp. 12-35
- 3. The Exhibition
- pp. 36-42
- 4. Woodland Vale
- pp. 43-50
- 5. School-Life
- pp. 51-58
- 6. Tried and Sentenced
- pp. 59-67
- 7. Expiation
- pp. 68-72
- 8. The Parvenu’s Daughter
- pp. 73-80
- 9. The Confession
- pp. 81-87
- 10. Theory and Practice
- pp. 88-93
- 11. New Acquaintances
- pp. 94-104
- 12. The Aunt’s Caution
- pp. 105-109
- 13. Philip
- pp. 110-115
- 14. The Seed Sown
- pp. 116-123
- 15. The Betrothal
- pp. 124-132
- 16. The Old Homestead
- pp. 133-139
- 18. Heart Struggles
- pp. 147-153
- 19. Consecration
- pp. 154-159
- 20. The Field Is the World
- pp. 160-165
- 21. Disowned
- pp. 166-182
- 22. Annie Murray
- pp. 183-189
- 23. Joined Not United
- pp. 190-197
- 24. Helen and Her Husband
- pp. 198-212
- 25. The Insane Asylum
- pp. 213-223
- 26. Sweet Home
- pp. 224-228
- 27. On the Rack
- pp. 229-237
- 28. Suspicions Awakened
- pp. 238-244
- 29. Elder Wiggins’s Plot
- pp. 245-257
- 30. Gilded Misery
- pp. 258-267
- 31. The Flight and Its Consequences
- pp. 268-277
- 32. The Convention
- pp. 278-284
- 33. The Midnight Summons
- pp. 285-297
- 34. Christine’s Home
- pp. 298-307
- 35. Coals of Fire
- pp. 308-317
- 36. Dr. Russell
- pp. 318-336
- 37. All’s Well That Ends Well
- pp. 337-347
- 38. Life-Plans Thwarted
- pp. 348-357
- 39. The Wedding
- pp. 358-363
- 40. Shadow and Sunshine
- pp. 364-378
Additional Information
ISBN
9780803233942
Related ISBN(s)
9780803213609
MARC Record
OCLC
704517543
Pages
432
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No