The life and adventures of Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, or, Scenes on the Mississippi
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Bibliographic Information
The life and adventures of Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, or, Scenes on the Mississippi
（The Pickering masters, . The social problem novels of Frances Trollope / general editor,
Pickering & Chatto, 2009
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The life and adventures of Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, or, Scenes on the Mississippi (1843)
The life and adventures of Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, or, Scenes on the Mississippi (1836)
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Originally published: London : Colburn, 1836
Includes bibliographical references
ISBN for series The social problem novels of Frances Trollope, v. 1-4: 9781851969722
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Frances Milton Trollope (1779-1863) was a prolific, provocative and hugely successful novelist. She greatly influenced the generation of Victorian novelists who came after her such as Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell. This book features Trollope's social problem novels.
Table of Contents
Volume 1 The Life and Adventures of Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw: Or Scenes on the Mississippi (1836) This ground-breaking novel was the first piece of fiction to incense readers about the evils of slavery. Trollope spent two-and-a-half years in America, mostly in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, she witnessed the desperate escape of slaves crossing the Ohio River from the neighbouring slave state of Kentucky into Ohio. She left the city shortly before Harriet Beecher Stowe arrived, but the pair became correspondents and friends. Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw was highly influential on Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, 'the little book', which Abraham Lincoln said 'started this big war'. The novel has been out of print since 1857 and is not available electronically. Volume 2 The Vicar of Wrexhill (1837) Although Trollope approved of religiously-charged social reform, she warned her readers to guard their hearts from unscrupulous religious leaders who meant only to take their money, control them and ruin them through licentious behaviour. The Vicar of Wrexhill depicts a widow, made socially helpless because of the death of her husband, who is taken advantage of by her vicar, marries him and allows herself to fall under his total control. This not only leads to her death and the death of a child born out of their union, it alienates the other children, jeopardizes their inheritance, throws the entire parish into a havoc, and enthrals the youngest daughter in a religious frenzy that exacts her sanity. This is the first modern scholarly edition. Volume 3 The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy (1840) This sympathetic and shocking portrayal of children in industry provoked an outrage that led to the revision of the Factory Act. The new law forbade the hiring of children younger than eight years of age and their working more than six-and-a-half hours per day. To gain a maximum audience to read her message, Trollope had her book sold in monthly instalments at one shilling each, which was very rare for women writers. Michael Armstrong established a prototypical paradigm for a heroine visiting the home of a factory labourer, and through her eyes, urging society to show mercy and kindness to the unfortunate, a model later used by Elizabeth Gaskell in Mary Barton and North and South, George Eliot in Adam Bede, and Charles Dickens in Hard Times. This is the first modern scholarly edition. Volume 4 Jessie Phillips: A Tale of the Present Day (1843) Jessie Phillips was serialized. This marketing practice aimed to gather a head of steam and instigate outrage over the bastardy clause in the 1834 Poor Law, which placed the sole responsibility for illegitimate children on the mother. As the novel appeared from December 1842 through November 1843, Trollope received an avalanche of mail by readers greatly moved by her story. Less than one year after the first appearance of Jessie Phillips, the House of Commons passed the Little Poor Law. It included a new bastardy clause which held fathers financially responsible for their illegitimate children. This is the first modern scholarly edition.
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