"'What pleasure,' cried Mr. Eldridge, as he stepped into the chaise to go for his grand-daughter, 'what pleasure expands the heart of an old man when he beholds the progeny of a beloved child growing up in every virtue that adorned the minds of her parents'" (Rowson 43). Thus begins the chapter of Charlotte Temple when Charlotte's grandfather, Mr. Eldridge, arrives by carriage to collect his fifteen year old granddaughter from boarding school and escort her home, where her loving parents have arranged a surprise party for her. But Charlotte is not at school. "Bear it like a Christian," says Mr. Eldridge when he informs Charlotte's father of what has happened. Mr. Temple informs his wife in the following exchange:

'Lucy,' replied Mr. Temple, 'imagine your daughter alive, and in no danger of death: what misfortune would you then dread?'
'There is one misfortune which is worse than death. But I know my child too well to suspect--'
'Be not too confident, Lucy.'
'Oh heavens!' said she, 'what horrid images do you start: is it possible she should forget--'
'She has forgot us all, my love, she has preferred the love of a stranger to the affectionate protection of her friends.'
'Not eloped?' cried she eagerly.
Mr. Temple was silent." (Rowson 48-49)

For more information on the seduction story:

Read Lily, or Virtue Confused, a modern setting of Charlotte Temple. Follow the links to short critical essays to see how the conventions of American seduction stories were incorporated.

OR

Take a shortcut straight to short critical essays on the following topics within the genre of the 1790s seduction story: Consent and Female Agency The Seducer Coquetry Nationality and Revolution Bystanders and the Social World

Relevant Bibliography Entries

• Brown, Gillian. "Consent, Coquetry, and Consequences." American Literary History 9.0 (1997), 625-652.

• Carey, Janet Eldred and Peter Mortensen. "Gender and Writing Instruction in Early America: Lessons from Didactic Fiction." Rhetoric Review 12.1 (1993), 25-53.

• Finn, Margot. "Women, Consumption and Coverture in England, c. 1760-1860." The Historical Journal 39.0 (1996), 703-722

• Hoeveler, Diane Long. Gothic Feminism: The Professionalization of Gender from Charlotte Smith to the Brontes. University Park (PA): Pennsylvania State UP, 1998.

• Kittredge, Katharine. "Introduction: Contexts for the Consideration of the Transgressive Antitype." Lewd and Notorious: Female Transgression in the Eighteenth Century. Ed. Katharine Kittredge. Ann Arbor (MI): U of Michigan P, 2003. 1-15.

• Krause, Sydney J. "Ormond: Seduction in a New Key." American Literature 44.4 (1973), 570-58.

• Nussbaum, Felicity A. Torrid Zones: Maternity, Sexuality, and Empire in Eighteenth-Century English Narratives. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1995.

• Reed, Toni. Demon-Lovers and their Victims in British Fiction. Lexington (KY): UP of Kentucky, 1988.

• Shaffer, Julie. "Ruined Women and Illegitimate Daughters: Revolution and Female Sexuality." Lewd and Notorious: Female Transgression in the Eighteenth Century. Ed. Katharine Kittredge. Ann Arbor (MI): U of Michigan P, 2003. 283-310.

• Saint-Amand, Pierre. The Libertine's Progress: Seduction in the Eighteenth-Century French Novel. Hanover: Brown UP, 1994.

• Stern, Julia. The Plight of Feeling: Sympathy and Dissent in the Early American Novel. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1997.

• Tennenhouse, Leonard. "Libertine America." A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 11.0 (1999), 1-28.

• 1799: Charles Brockden Brown publishes Ormond and Edgar Huntley.

• 1798: Hannah Foster Webster publishes The Coquette.

• 1791: Susanna Rowson publishes Charlotte Temple

• 1790: Amelia Opie publishes The Dangers of Coquetry.