The Linwoods

Now in a deluxe edition, the epic classic tale of two families wrestling with questions of loyalty, liberty, and love during the American Revolution.

At the dawn of the American Revolution, young Isabella Linwood is poised to marry a well-to-do English nobleman. Meanwhile her true love, Eliot Lee, has just joined George Washington’s army. In Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s classic tale of two families torn apart by war, the loyalist Linwoods and revolutionary Lees must reckon with their beliefs and desires in a young republic still defining itself. Over the course of her conversion from proud Tory to ardent rebel, Isabella fosters a growing sense of independence, systematically questioning the institutions taken for granted all around her—from colonialism to slavery, patriarchy to aristocracy. Will her rebellious behavior free her from society’s shackles, or only confirm the power of the status quo?

Praise for The Linwoods

“A richly textured portrait of post-colonial American life by a woman who lived it, and an engaging novel.” —Historical Novel Society