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Full Description
John Thelwall's The Daughter of Adoption: A Tale of Modern Times is a witty and wide-ranging work in which the picaresque and sentimental novel of the eighteenth century confronts the revolutionary ideas and forms of the Romantic period. Thelwall puts his two main characters, the conflicted English gentleman Henry Montfort and the Creole Seraphina Parkinson, through their paces in a slave rebellion in Haiti, where they barely escape with their lives, and in London society, where Henry almost loses his soul. Combining political analysis with melodrama and flat-out farce, Daughter expands the scope of the abolitionist novel, pushing the argument beyond the slave trade to challenge empire and racial superiority.
Historical materials on Thelwall's life, the abolitionist movement, and eighteenth-century educational theories provide a detailed context for the novel.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
John Thelwall and His World: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
The Daughter of Adoption; A Tale of Modern Times
Appendix A: Biographical Documents
From John Thelwall, "Prefatory Memoir," Poems, Chiefly Written in Retirement (1801)
From John Thelwall to Susan Thelwall (18 July 1797)
From John Thelwall to Dr. Peter Crompton (3 March 1798)
From John Thelwall, A Letter to Francis Jeffray [sic], Esq. (1804)
From Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1835)
From William Wordsworth to Henrietta Cecil Thelwall (16 November 1838)
From William Wordsworth, Notes Dictated to Isabella Fenwick, first published as Notes in the Poetical Works (1857)
Appendix B: Contextual Documents
Literature and Education
From Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749)
From Thomas Day, The History of Sandford and Merton (1783-89)
From John Thelwall, The Peripatetic (1793)
From Richard and Maria Edgeworth, Practical Education (1801)
From John Thelwall, Introductory Discourse on the Nature and Objects of Elocutionary Science (1805)
From John Thelwall, "The Historical and Oratorical Society," A Letter to Henry Cline (1810)
The West Indies and the Abolition Debate
From John Thelwall, "The Connection between the Calamities of the Present Reign, and the System of Borough-Mongering Corruption," The Tribune (1795-96)
From John Thelwall, Rights of Nature, against the Usurpations of Establishments (1796)
From Baron de Wimpffen, A Voyage to Saint Domingo, in the Years 1788, 1789, and 1790 (1797)
From Bryan Edwards, An Historical Survey of the French Colony in the Island of St. Domingo (1798)
From John Thelwall, "The Negro's Prayer," Monthly Magazine (April 1807)
The Revolution Debate
From Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
From William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness (1798)
Appendix C: Reviews of The Daughter of Adoption
Critical Review (February 1801)
Monthly Magazine (20 July 1801)
Monthly Review (August 1801)
Annals of Philosophy (1801)
Thelwall's Reply to the Reviews, from "Prefatory Memoir," Poems, Chiefly Written in Retirement (1801)
Works Cited and Recommended Reading
