A Romance of the Republic

Rating:
Summary: Complicated allegory
Review: This book has a very important role in the post Civil War imagining of a different future. Child always presents optimistic endings to fantastically complicated scenarios: here two sisters from an illicit liaison are shocked to find themselves illegitimate and liable to be sold as slaves when their father dies. Most of the book details their adventures in romance and at the very end a few Civil War scenes serve to bring their stories back together. It's hard to follow the plot, but there's a lot to like about this book nonetheless. Dana Nelson's commentary is quite helpful. And Child is a very important 19th century writer.