"Stoddard was, next to Melville and Hawthorne, the most strikingly original voice in the mid-nineteenth-century American novel, a voice . . . that ought to gain a more sympathetic and perceptive hearing in our time than in her own."—from the Introduction
The centerpiece of this volume is The Morgesons (1862), one of the few outstanding feminist bildungsromanae of that century. Additional selections include arresting short stories and provocative journalistic essays/reviews, plus a number of letters and manuscript journals that have never before been published. The texts are fully edited and documented.

"The Morgesons is a classic of premodern literature. Its rediscovery will change our preconceptions of women's literature in the nineteenth century." - Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University

"'A sly, subtle, shrewd observer of the ethos of her native New England village, Stoddard was a surprisingly 'modern' chronicler of the women of will and individuality seeking personal fulfillment against the crushing constraints of tradition. . . . She is well worth rescuing from oblivion and installing as a familiar presence in our literary culture."" - Publishers Weekly