Bell, Michael Davitt. “History and Romance Convention in Catherine Sedgwick’s ‘Hope Leslie.’”

Bell, Michael Davitt. “History and Romance Convention in Catherine Sedgwick’s ‘Hope Leslie.’” American Quarterly 22.2.1 (1970): 213-221.

This short article discusses how Hope Leslie melds the history into her romance. Bell divides the book up into three sup-plots: The Indian plot (involving Mononotto and Magawisca), the seduction plot (Gardiner and Hope) and the drawing room plot (mistaken love involving Esther, Everell, and Hope). The work provides an extensive plot summary with connections to historical events. Bell gives the intriguing, but in need of backing, argument that HL is a novel of American progress of tamed nature against “wild” nature, European tyranny, and Puritan artificiality. This is an interesting argument that could use more development.

Bib of Note:

Beach, Seth Curtis, Daughters of the Puritans Boston: 1906.