Beulah

This is a novel book. The plot of Beulah follows the uneven fortunes of the orphaned Beulah Benton from her early teens to young adulthood. Beulah's determined quest for independence leads her into the shifting sands of skepticism, doubt, and anxiety. Her struggles cause her to wrestle with many of the great theological, moral, and intellectual questions of the day before finally regaining her faith. Beulah's story, then, is not so much that of a woman who grapples with the difficulties of obedience to society's norms and eventually surrenders to convention -- as some modern-day readers of the novel have contended -- as that of an uncompromising, independent woman of wide-ranging intellect who ardently seeks answers to important questions, particularly those of religious faith. Beulah articulated two of the principal concerns of a generation of nineteenth-century American women -- the constraints of domestic life and the desire for freedom to engage in intellectual and philosophical pursuits. Moreover, though it did not overtly deal with slavery, the novel served as an expression of and an apology for southern values and customs.