The Morgesons

Stoddard leaves little to the imagination in this startling New England bildungsroman about a strange girl and her even stranger sister

Cassandra and Veronica Morgeson are wild girls. Adored by men, hated by women and feared by their parents—they break the mold. Veronica refuses to leave the family hearth or look at the ocean. Cassandra travels from one house to another around Massachusetts, breaking hearts and sending men to their deaths wherever she goes. She narrates it all in a bold voice that will surprise and shock even those most familiar with 19th-century literature. Henry James called The Morgesons "a remarkable book by those who had the good fortune to come across it." As with all of Mandylion’s bespoke publications, this new edition of Stoddard’s first novel includes a visual glossary that illuminates the social conventions and restrictions of the 19th century.
Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard (1823–1902) was the author of three novels, The Morgesons (1862), Two Men (1865) and Temple House (1867). These received mixed reviews and sold poorly in her lifetime, though her work received renewed interest at the end of her life. Her career underwent another critical reevaluation among feminist scholars in the 1970 and 1980s.