About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Missouri Press

ISBN-100826215289

ISBN-139780826215284

eBay Product ID (ePID)30217040

Product Key Features

Number of Pages320 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameSophia Peabody Hawthorne Vol. I : Alife, Volume I, 1809-1847

SubjectGeneral, Literary, American / General

Publication Year2004

TypeTextbook

AuthorPatricia Dunlavy Valenti

Subject AreaLiterary Criticism, Biography & Autobiography

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.2 in

Item Weight23.1 Oz

Item Length9.2 in

Item Width6.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceCollege Audience

LCCN2004-000652

Dewey Edition22

Reviews"To explain why Sophia nonetheless rejoiced in her domestic life, Valenti appropriates Emerson's tribute to Sophia's artistic talents: she had a 'beauty making eye.' The phrase recurs during Valenti's anatomizations of Sophia's achievements and travails as wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, editor, widow and artist. Not all of Valenti's assessments are laudatory. But she provides an admirably full understanding of a remarkably complex woman."-- Nathaniel Hawthorne Review "Surveying Sophia's early years to the birth of her second child, Valenti considers Hawthorne's construction of Sophia as his "Dove." Reading Hawthorne's works through his wife's life, Valenti brings into relief questions about the boundaries of (single) authorship, especially within the domestic sphere."-- American Literature "Valenti has offered fresh insight into Nathaniel's works by establishing a more complex understanding of Sophia's multi-faceted life and by peeling away layers of critically created context which had shrouded Sophia's important role in stimulating new imaginative horizons for Nathaniel."-- Rain Taxi, "Surveying Sophia's early years to the birth of her second child, Valenti considers Hawthorne's construction of Sophia as his "Dove." Reading Hawthorne's works through his wife's life, Valenti brings into relief questions about the boundaries of (single) authorship, especially within the domestic sphere."-- American Literature "Valenti has offered fresh insight into Nathaniel's works by establishing a more complex understanding of Sophia's multi-faceted life and by peeling away layers of critically created context which had shrouded Sophia's important role in stimulating new imaginative horizons for Nathaniel."-- Rain Taxi

Grade FromCollege Freshman

IllustratedYes

Grade ToCollege Graduate Student

Dewey Decimal813/.3 B

SynopsisSophia Peabody Hawthorne is known almost exclusively in her role as the wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who portrayed her as the fragile, ethereal, infirm "Dove." That image, invented by Nathaniel to serve his needs and affirm his manhood, was passed on by his biographers, who accepted their subject's perception without question. In fact, the real Sophia was very different from Nathaniel's construction of her. An independent, sensuous, daring woman, Sophia was an accomplished artist before her marriage to Nathaniel. Moreover, what she brought to their union inspired Nathaniel's imagination beyond the limits of his previously confined existence. In Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Patricia Dunlavy Valenti situates the story of Sophia's life within its own historical, philosophical, and cultural background, as well as within the context of her marriage. Valenti begins with parallel biographies that present Sophia, and then Nathaniel, at comparable periods in their lives. Sophia was born into an expansive, somewhat chaotic home in which women provided financial as well as emotional sustenance. She was a precocious, eager student whose rigorous education, in her mother's and her sisters' schools, began her association with the children of New England's elite. Sophia aspired to become a professional, self-supporting painter, exhibiting her art and seeking criticism from established mentors. She relished an eighteen-month sojourn in Cuba. Nathaniel's reclusive family, his reluctant early education, his anonymous pursuit of a career, and his relatively circumscribed life contrast markedly with the experience of the woman who became his wife and the mother of his children. Those differences resulted in a creative abrasion that ignited his fiction during the first years of their marriage. Volume 1 of this biography concludes with Sophia's negotiation of the Hawthornes' departure from the Old Manse and the birth of their second child. This period also coincides with the conclusion of Nathaniel's major phase of short story writing. Sophia Peabody Hawthorne is an engrossing story of a nineteenth-century American life. It analyzes influences upon authorship and questions the boundaries of intellectual property in the domestic sphere. The book also offers fresh interpretations of Nathaniel Hawthorne's fiction, examining it through the lens of Sophia's vibrant personality and diverse interests. Students and scholars of American literature, literary theory, feminism, and cultural history will find much to enrich their understanding of this woman and this era.

LC Classification NumberPS1882.V35 2004