Charlotte Temple
by Susanna Haswell Rowson
A young woman becomes separated from her family and friends after falling in love and sailing to America.
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About This Book
Charlotte Temple is the story of the titular young woman who becomes entangled in a love affair with a lieutenant in the British army. Encouraged by her wayward teacher, Mademoiselle La Rue, Charlotte leaves behind her boarding school and absconds to America along with her seducer, lieutenant Montraville, and his friend Belcour. Far from her home in England, Charlotte’s notions of purity, romance, and familial devotion are quickly brought into stark conflict as she experiences the pain of misplaced trust and betrayal on the unfamiliar shores of New York.
The novel, first published in 1791, quickly became a bestseller, and remained the best-selling novel in American literature until it was unseated in 1851 by Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
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Public domain in the United States. Users located outside of the United States must check their local laws before using this ebook. Original content released to the public domain via the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.