From the Novel of Seduction to the Domestic Novel:

The novels written from the 1790s to the 1850s by and about women, such as Susanna Rowson¿s Charlotte Temple (1791), Hannah Webster Foster¿s The Coquette (1797), and Maria Susanna Cummins¿s The Lamplighter (1854) are valuable sources providing important historical content. The development of the American sentimental novel and its protagonist is linked with the reevaluation of the status and role of women after the Revolutionary War in the United States. ¿The fallen woman¿ of the sentimental novel of seduction, a victim of circumstances she cannot control, evolves into an exemplary and virtuous character within the sentimental domestic novel. This growth parallels changes in American society of the 1790-1850s. The fundamental shifts in the plot of early American sentimental fiction reflect the actual history of women and the changes in female ideology in America, as it grew from the 1790s through the first half of the nineteenth century. Accordingly, sentimental fiction by and about women is not just a unique expression of American literary history, but also a guide for women after which they should fashion themselves in the new, more liberal post-Revolutionary society.