Doomed Romance
Broken Hearts, Lost Souls, and Sexual Tumult in Nineteenth-Century America
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3,5 • 2 valoraciones
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Descripción editorial
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A thwarted love triangle of heartbreak rediscovered after almost two hundred years—two men and a woman of equal ambition—that exploded in scandal and investigation, set between America's Revolution and its Civil War, revealing an age in subtle and powerful transformation, caught between the fight for women's rights and the campaign waged by evangelical Protestants to dominate the nation's culture and politics. From the winner of the Bancroft Prize and the Francis Parkman Prize in History.
At its center—and the center of a love triangle—Martha Parker, a gifted young New England woman, smart, pretty, ambitious, determined to make the most of her opportunities, aspiring to become an educator and a foreign missionary.
Late in 1825, Martha accepted a proposal from a schoolmaster, Thomas Tenney, only to reject him several weeks later for a rival suitor, a clergyman headed for the mission field, Elnathan Gridley. Tenney's male friends, deeply resentful of the new prominence of women in academies, benevolent and reform associations, and the mission field, decided to retaliate on Tenney's behalf by sending an anonymous letter to the head of the foreign missions board impugning Martha's character. Tenney further threatened Martha with revealing even more about their relationship, thereby ruining her future prospects as a missionary. The head of the board began an inquiry into the truth of the claims about Martha, and in so doing, collected letters, diaries, depositions, and firsthand witness accounts of Martha's character.
The ruin of Martha Parker's hopes provoked a resistance within evangelical ranks over womanhood, manhood, and, surprisingly, homosexuality, ultimately threatening to destroy the foreign missions enterprise.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bancroft Prize winner Heyrman (American Apostles) delivers an immersive look at changing gender dynamics within evangelical Protestantism in the years before the Civil War. Heyrman centers the narrative on Martha Parker, a New England schoolteacher who aspired to be a missionary. Women in the 1820s could only enter the missionary field as ministers' wives, however, so Martha's engagement to Elnathan Gridley, a clergyman selected for a mission to Palestine, seemed to be a match made in heaven. But Martha's second cousin, Thomas Tenney, protested; after accepting his marriage proposal on a "conditional" basis, Martha broke off the engagement when she couldn't obtain her sister's approval of the marriage. (Heyrman suggests that interest from Gridley was the true cause of the relationship's demise.) In an exhaustive investigation into Martha's character conducted by the missionary board, Tenney's allies argued that her "flirtatious ways" ought to disqualify her from missionary work; meanwhile, Martha's supporters defended her right to change her mind. Heyrman's fluid account reveals how encouraging female parishioners to use their God-given talents for holy ends benefited evangelical churches, yet led to worries about the feminization of religion and the growing ambitions of women. This richly detailed history shines.
