“You may now felicitate me—I have had an interview with the charmer I informed you of.”
And with this opening line, the long and fruitful history of American novel-writing officially commences. This opening line is the first line in the first of the novel’s many letters; the first American novel falls under the genre of epistolary literature. Meaning, of course, that it is a story told through letters written by one character to another. Why does the first novel written by an American set in America take such a form? Well, there is actually a quote from that novel which precedes this which goes a long toward explaining that.
Novels have ever met with a ready reception into the Libraries of the Ladies, but this species of writing hath not been received with universal approbation: Futility is not the only charge brought against it.
Before the narrative proper actually begins, the author seeks to pre-empt coordinated critical assessment of his work with a Preface. That prefatory pre-emptive justification begins by admitting that the novel as a form of literature has not yet been universally accepted. Poetry and drama were considered the height of serious literature at the time and the only inroads made by prose was within the limited constraints of the short story. And even that was not exactly setting the world on fire. Novel were, as here suggested, predominantly viewed within the context of “women’s literature.” It is not by accident, of course, that most of the names now associated with the novel in its seminal development are those belonging to women: Aphra Behn, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and the Brontes, etc. The Preface goes merrily along its pre-emptive way by assuring readers that within the letters contained within “the dangerous Consequences of SEDUCTION are exposed, and the Advantages of FEMALE EDUCATION set forth and recommended.”
“Must I then forget the endearments of the lover, and call you by the name of brother?”
Lessons in morality, instruction of female education and the consequences of seduction are deemed a necessity for selling the public on the validity of this first American novel because without the moral instruction at the end, some readers might well mistake the plot for titillation. At the heart of the story is a love most foul, one which must be tempered before it reaches a fever peak. Thomas Harrington and Harriot Fawcett are not just the lovers at the center of this romance, but also—unbeknownst to them at first—brother and sister. The societal taboo which is the engine driving the narrative is a plot device which strangely can be said to both take advantage of and also be doomed by the decision to follow the popularity of sentimental novels being written in epistolary form. Letters are a perfect place for transmission of secrets which definitely works to the story’s advantage. On the other hand, the letter-writing form makes it rather difficult to work up the tragically romantic fireworks that such a story requires. Here is the perfect example as Harriot makes this plea to her brother/love on paper rather than in person where he could reply.
