"Ethel's Love-Life" and Other Writings (Q19: The Queer American Nineteenth Century)

__"Ethel's Love-Life" and Other Writings__ presents an annotated edition of what's sometimes called the first American "lesbian" novel, with an introduction by Christopher Looby, as well as a collection of author Margaret J. M. Sweat's poetry and her published essays on Charlotte Brontë, George Sand, the novel, and the friendships of women. "__Ethel's Love-Life__ and Other Writings" presents an annotated edition of what's sometimes called the first American "lesbian" novel, with an introduction by Christopher Looby, as well as a collection of author Margaret J. M. Sweat's poetry and her published essays on Charlotte Brontë, George Sand, the novel, and the friendships of women.

In a series of lengthy letters, the unsettled and unruly Ethel Sutherland writes to an initially unnamed and ungendered correspondent, and patiently discloses the troubled history of her past romantic attachments to both men and women. Not until the third letter does she reveal that her correspondent is Ernest, the man to whom she is engaged to be married. Wanting to make him understand how all of her past loves are included and sublimated in her love for him, she especially wants to explain how "women often love each other with as much fervor and excitement as they do men"; and although this love is curiously "freed from all the grosser elements of passion, as it exists between sexes," nevertheless it "retains its energy, its abandonment, its flush, its eagerness, its palpitation, and its rapture."

Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat (1823-1908), a native of Portland, Maine, and wife of a United States congressman, published Ethel's Love-Life in 1859. The book is sometimes credited as an early—even the first—"lesbian" American novel, but such a label, Christopher Looby observes in his Introduction, somewhat misrepresents what is distinctive and surprising about the book. Ethel's Love-Life confounds our received binary distinctions between the spiritual and the carnal and, indeed, between the sexual and the nonsexual—the boundaries between such categories being not nearly as well-policed at the time as they later became. It is here reprinted, along with Sweat's Verses (1890) and five of her published essays, on Charlotte Brontë, George Sand, the contemporary novel, and the friendships of women.

In a series of lengthy letters, the unsettled and unruly EthelSutherland writes to an initially unnamed and ungenderedcorrespondent, and patiently discloses the troubled history of herpast romantic attachments to both men and women. Not until thethird letter does she reveal that her correspondent is Ernest, theman to whom she is engaged to be married. Wanting to make himunderstand how all of her past loves are included and sublimated inher love for him, she especially wants to explain how "women oftenlove each other with as much fervor and excitement as they do men";and although this love is curiously "freed from all the grosserelements of passion, as it exists between sexes," nevertheless it"retains its energy, its abandonment, its flush, its eagerness, itspalpitation, and its rapture."

Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat (1823-1908), a native of Portland,Maine, and wife of a United States congressman, publishedEthel's Love-Life in 1859. The book is sometimes creditedas an early-even the first-"lesbian" American novel, but such alabel, Christopher Looby observes in his Introduction, somewhatmisrepresents what is distinctive and surprising about the book.Ethel's Love-Life confounds our received binarydistinctions between the spiritual and the carnal and, indeed,between the sexual and the nonsexual-the boundaries between suchcategories being not nearly as well-policed at the time as theylater became. It is here reprinted, along with Sweat'sVerses (1890) and five of her published essays, onCharlotte Brontë, George Sand, the contemporary novel, and thefriendships of women.

In a series of lengthy letters, the unsettled and unruly Ethel Sutherland writes to an initially unnamed and ungendered correspondent, and patiently discloses the troubled history of her past romantic attachments to both men and women. Not until the third letter does she reveal that her correspondent is Ernest, the man to whom she is engaged to be married. Wanting to make him understand how all of her past loves are included and sublimated in her love for him, she especially wants to explain how "women often love each other with as much fervor and excitement as they do men"; and although this love is curiously "freed from all the grosser elements of passion, as it exists between sexes," nevertheless it "retains its energy, its abandonment, its flush, its eagerness, its palpitation, and its rapture." Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat (1823-1908), a native of Portland, Maine, and wife of a United States congressman, published Ethel's Love-Life in 1859. The book is sometimes credited as an early--even the first--"lesbian" American novel, but such a label, Christopher Looby observes in his Introduction, somewhat misrepresents what is distinctive and surprising about the book. Ethel's Love-Life confounds our received binary distinctions between the spiritual and the carnal and, indeed, between the sexual and the nonsexual--the boundaries between such categories being not nearly as well-policed at the time as they later became. It is here reprinted, along with Sweat's Verses (1890) and five of her published essays, on Charlotte Bront, George Sand, the contemporary novel, and the friendships of women. In a series of lengthy letters, the unsettled and unruly Ethel Sutherland writes to an initially unnamed and ungendered correspondent, and patiently discloses the troubled history of her past romantic attachments to both men and women. Not until the third letter does she reveal that her correspondent is Ernest, the man to whom she is engaged to be married. Wanting to make him understand how all of her past loves are included and sublimated in her love for him, she especially wants to explain how "women often love each other with as much fervor and excitement as they do men"; and although this love is curiously "freed from all the grosser elements of passion, as it exists between sexes," nevertheless it "retains its energy, its abandonment, its flush, its eagerness, its palpitation, and its rapture." Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat (1823-1908), a native of Portland, Maine, and wife of a United States congressman, published Ethel's Love-Life in 1859. The book is sometimes credited as an early—even the first—"lesbian" American novel, but such a label, Christopher Looby observes in his Introduction, somewhat misrepresents what is distinctive and surprising about the book. Ethel's Love-Life confounds our received binary distinctions between the spiritual and the carnal and, indeed, between the sexual and the nonsexual—the boundaries between such categories being not nearly as well-policed at the time as they later became. It is here reprinted, along with Sweat's Verses (1890) and five of her published essays, on Charlotte Brontë, George Sand, the contemporary novel, and the friendships of women. In a series of lengthy letters, the unsettled and unruly Ethel Sutherland writes to an initially unnamed and ungendered correspondent, and patiently discloses the troubled history of her past romantic attachments to both men and women. Not until the third letter does she reveal that her correspondent is Ernest, the man to whom she is engaged to be married. Wanting to make him understand how all of her past loves are included and sublimated in her love for him, she especially wants to explain how "women often love each other with as much fervor and excitement as they do men"; and although this love is curiously "freed from all the grosser elements of passion, as it exists between sexes," nevertheless it "retains its energy, its abandonment, its flush, its eagerness, its palpitation, and its rapture." Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat (1823-1908), a native of Portland, Maine, and wife of a United States congressman, published Ethel's Love-Life in 1859. The book is sometimes credited as an early-even the first-"lesbian" American novel, but such a label, Christopher Looby observes in his Introduction, somewhat misrepresents what is distinctive and surprising about the book. Ethel's Love-Life confounds our received binary distinctions between the spiritual and the carnal and, indeed, between the sexual and the nonsexual-the boundaries between such categories being not nearly as well-policed at the time as they later became. It is here reprinted, along with Sweat's Verses (1890) and five of her published essays, on Charlotte Bronte, George Sand, the contemporary novel, and the friendships of women "The present volume reprints "Ethel's Love-Life" by Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat, for the first time since it appeared in 1859; and it also reprints Sweat's collection of poems, "Verses" (1890), as well as a robust selection of her most important literary-critical writings, which have largely to do with the genre of the novel and with her two most admired literary predecessors (Charlotte Brontë and George Sand). The critical writings by Sweat on the novel as a form and on these particular female writers give us many hints as to her agenda in writing "Ethel's Love-Life"; her collection in "Verses" both continues her novel's project of dramatizing a queer way of being in the world and may, in some ways, retreat from that vision"-- Provided by publisher