Secondary Heroines in Nineteenth-Century British and American Novels

Name: Secondary Heroines in Nineteenth-Century British and American Novels
Brand: Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis

Taking up works by Samuel Richardson, James Fenimore Cooper, Sir Walter Scott, and Catharine Maria Sedgwick, among others, Jennifer B. Camden examines the role of \""secondary heroines\"" in early British and American novels. By showing that they are a site for the displaced anxieties produced by the national ideals proffered in the novel, Camden offers an important intervention into the ways in which early novels use character to further ideologies of race, class, sex, and gender. > Taking up works by Samuel Richardson, James Fenimore Cooper, Sir Walter Scott, and Catharine Maria Sedgwick, among others, Jennifer B. Camden examines the role of female characters who, while embodying the qualities associated with heroines, fail to achieve this status in the story. These \""secondary heroines,\"" often the friend or sister of the primary heroine, typically disappear from the action of the novel as the courtship plot progresses, only to return near the conclusion of the action with renewe.