This paper is a summary of Susanna Haswell Rowson's novel, Charlotte Temple. The book was first published in Great Britain in 1791. It became extremely popular with American readers for reasons that scholars are still debating. Its simple story tells of an innocent girl who is led astray by a handsome stranger. He promises marriage. Instead, he lures her to America and then abandons her. When her father finally finds her, she has just give birth to an illegitimate daughter. She dies in his arms, disgraced and miserable, all because she abandoned her parents and gave herself to her lover. The story became wildly popular, especially with American audiences. They were touched by its tragic story of how a sweet young girl could be led astray so easily. It showed how dependent women in that society were on the kindness and good intentions of men. Charlotte Temple offers an interesting glimpse into the kind of fiction that was popular in the decades following the American Revolution. This novel, still readable today, laid the groundwork for popular fiction that was to come.
Rowson prefaces her story by insisting that it is true; the original title of the book was Charlotte. A Tale of Truth. She attests that a real Charlotte existed and that her story was "related to me some little time since by an old lady who had personally know Charlotte" (5). Rowson believed that her readers would find the novel more compelling if they thought it was a true story. Throughout the book, she inserts assurances to her readers about details that they might find hard to accept. These passages help to remind readers that truth is usually stranger than fiction. Whether or not Charlotte was a real woman, she comes alive in the pages of the book. If she did not really exist, she could have. Her fate was not unusual.
Rowson frames her story as a cautionary tale. She writes that she would be happy "if the following tale should save one h...