Euphemia Paperback – August 30, 2008

EUPHEMIA is an amazing mix of love stories, exotic adventures and social critique - ever so cleverly plotted. I was totally absorbed by it.Two beautiful young women - wise, high-principled and intelligent - are fast friends. Separated by circumstances, they correspond fervently, giving us a fascinating picture of friendship - and of two very different lives in eighteenth-century England and colonial America.Maria's is the more conventional eighteenth-century tale. A dependent orphan, she must deal skillfully with her rich uncle, his conniving young wife - and a family feud that threatens Maria's happiness.Euphemia is already married when we meet her - rare in this period when most novels focused on courtship. To please her dying mother, Euphemia has married a man she can never love - a selfish, tyrannical, cold-hearted British officer. He takes her to the wilds of America to live at a British trading post - with terrible consequences.EUPHEMIA was published in 1790. Reviewers were impressed with the vibrancy and authenticity of the author's observations of America. In describing Dutch traders, vagrant natives and picturesque trips up the Hudson, Charlotte Lennox wrote from experience. She spent several years in Albany, where her father served with the British army.Charlotte Lennox was equally well qualified to write about an unhappy marriage, being yoked like Euphemia to a man who gave her nothing but trouble. The scholarly introduction explores the underlying political agenda of Lennox, who subtly challenges both British imperialism and misogynistic marriage laws in EUPHEMIA.Lennox was a remarkable woman. After her American girlhood, she surfaced in London to write her first novel at age twenty. A protégée of Samuel Johnson, she became a dominant figure on the London literary scene as playwright, novelist, poet, publisher and translator.I loved EUPHEMIA, and can also recommend Lennox's SOPHIA, which I read recently.

Charlotte Lennox's epistolary novel "Euphemia" details the 12 year friendship of two separated friends; Euphemia Neville and Maria Harley. Separated by the Atlantic Ocean, each young heroine must learn to deal with her individual situation by trusting her own prudence, which is additionally supported by an endearing female friendship as revealed in the poignant letters exchanged between them. Typical 18th century novels end with a restoration of name, fortune, family, and ultimately in a marriage; symbolic of God's divine plan for humankind. The idea comes from the book of Revelation in which St John writes that the end of time will culiminate with a marriage between Christ and the earthly church. In Lennox's novel; however, the "marriage" or "restoration" is a restoration between two friends. The novel is different from other 18th century novels in that the conclusion validates the close bond between two women rather than a marriage between a man and a woman. This "novel" approach to ending a piece of fiction would allow for an expansion of literary ideas and motifs that would only complement and expand the vast writings of great 18th century writers like Lennox