Department
English
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2002
Abstract
In an 1830s review of Lydia Maria Child's Good Wives published in Sarah Hale's Ladies' Magazine, the enthusiastic commentator quoted above sets Child's latest book within a thriving literary culture that values didactic literature. Acknowledging the importance of a genre I call the domestic literacy narrative, the reviewer confidently asserts that "the prevalent rage for reading" promises to promote not only familial but national well-being-promises, that is, if more books like Child's are regularly published to help train women to direct their family's reading and extract from it principles and behaviors consonant with their country's "future good."
Journal Title
The New England Quarterly
Journal ISSN
0028-4866
Volume
75
Issue
4
First Page
562
Last Page
591
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.2307/1559860
COinS