Wych Hazel

Warner, Susan, 1819-1885Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 792K words
Chapters: 80

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Wych Hazel by Anna Bartlett Warner and Susan Warner. Author: Warner, Susan, 1819-1885. Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 19, 2006

Editor's review

Co-written by sisters Susan Warner and Anna Bartlett Warner, Wych Hazel is a representative work of nineteenth-century American popular fiction. With delicate strokes the novel depicts the growth, family relationships and emotional choices of its young heroine, bearing clear marks of moral instruction and sentimentality, and reflecting the era's middle-class expectations of feminine character. The narrative pace is slow, with much dialogue and psychological description, making it suitable as a text for understanding nineteenth-century American women's writing and the tradition of popular fiction. Readers can observe traces of the sisters' division of labor in collaborative writing and how novels of the time handled religion, family and courtship. For those studying American literary history or women's literature, it is a work of reference value though not part of the mainstream canon.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of nineteenth-century American literature and women's writing
Readers who enjoy classic domestic and moral fiction
Readers interested in the Warner sisters' works and their collaborative writing model
Readers seeking insight into nineteenth-century American gender norms

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced plots and strong dramatic conflict
Readers impatient with religious preaching and sentimentality
Readers looking for modern or contemporary fiction

Reading tips

Begin with the preface or author background to understand the Warner sisters' creative context
Pay attention to the heroine's psychological description and family interactions to grasp the moral themes
Read alongside other American women's novels of the same period to observe common features of popular fiction
The pace is slow; read chapter by chapter and take brief notes to track character relationships

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Was this book co-written by two sisters?

According to the source, the book is credited to Anna Bartlett Warner and Susan Warner, that is, the Warner sisters, who collaborated on it. The two often collaborated in the field of nineteenth-century American popular fiction, and this book is one sample for understanding their collaborative writing approach.

What is the novel's main subject?

The work centers on a young woman's growth, family relationships and emotional choices, with moral instruction and sentimentality, belonging to the tradition of nineteenth-century American popular domestic fiction. Readers can see the era's expectations regarding feminine character and courtship.

Is it suitable as material for studying American literary history?

It is suitable as supplementary material. It is not among the most mainstream classics, but it reflects nineteenth-century American women's writing, the popular fiction market and moral discourse, and has reference value for studying women's literature and the domestic novel tradition; it is best used alongside other works of the same period.

Comments

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About the author

Warner, Susan, 1819-1885 Author

Susan Warner (1819-1885) was a nineteenth-century American author known for inspirational coming-of-age fiction; her name and dates of birth and death appear in library catalog records. Public information about her is limited, and details of her life and education are difficult to establish with certainty, yet the library holds thirty-one of her works, which indicates a prolific and steady writing career. The Wide, Wide World is her best-known work, alongside Queechy, Diana, Nobody, Daisy, The End of a Coil, and Hills of the Shatemuc. Her fiction generally centers on young people's growth, family life, and moral trials, with a gentle and detailed style that emphasizes inner change and the formation of character. She found readers in the popular fiction market of her time and contributed to the later tradition of the coming-of-age novel.