Emma Corbett: Or, the Miseries of Civil War (Broadview Editions) - Tapa blanda

"Emma Corbett is essential reading for anyone interested in the impact of the American revolutionary war on both sides of the Atlantic, and in the development of the novel as major vehicle for the cultural negotiation of pressing global political and social issues. Professor Bannet offers entirely new scholarly insight into the genesis and cultural context of this, the most popular and influential fictional attempt to come to terms with the War. Republication of Pratt's pioneering novel is long overdue, and this excellent edition makes it once again fresh, intelligible, and impossible to ignore." - Karen O'Brien, University of Birmingham "Emma Corbett is one of what Eve Tavor Bannet terms `transatlantic stories,' written in 1780 by Samuel Jackson Pratt, an English curate turned actor and poet. Bannet's supplementary material, especially the letters between Pratt and Benjamin Franklin, provides clues as to why he developed the themes he did in the book." - Carole Shammas, University of Southern California

Set both in England and in America, Emma Corbett is the moving story of a family torn apart by the American revolutionary war. Edward Corbett and Henry Hammond are brought up together and go on to marry each other's sisters, but fight on opposite sides in the war. Emma Corbett, Edward's sister, follows Henry to Pennsylvania. Disguised as a man, she fights for the British before finding Henry and saving his life, but the war and its aftermath have tragic consequences for all four young people. This powerful epistolary novel was a transatlantic best-seller, in part because both sides of the conflict are fully represented-as are the miseries and terrible costs of war. Appendices include contemporary reviews as well as contemporary writings on heroism, sensibility, and women and war. A series of personal letters between Pratt (writing as Courtney Melmoth) and Benjamin Franklin, for whom he worked in France, are also included.