Coelebs in Search of a Wife (1808),[1] titled in full as Coelebs in Search of a Wife. Comprehending Observations on Domestic Habits and Manners, Religion and Morals., is a novel by the British Christian moralist Hannah More. It was followed by Coelebs Married in 1814.
| Author | Hannah More |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | T[homas] Cadell and W[illiam] Davies |
Publication date | 1808 |
| Publication place | London, United Kingdom |
| OCLC | 420533354 |
| Followed by | Coelebs Married |
The novel focuses on Coelebs—whose name is a Latin word meaning "single, unmarried"—a well-to-do young man who tries to find a wife who can meet the lofty moral requirements laid down by his now-deceased mother.
Coelebs in Search of a Wife was extremely popular when it was published.[2] It combined its novelistic narrative with religious lessons, which helped it to become the first nineteenth century novel to be accepted enthusiastically by the large religious reading public (in Britain, the novel had often been seen as an unrespectable and even immoral literary form).[2]
Maria Edgeworth, in an 1810 letter to Mrs. Ruxton, claims that the bachelor was modelled on a Mr. Harford of Blaise Castle.
Frank Muir said, "It is now high on the list of the world's most unreadable books".[3]
References
edit- ^ [Hannah More] (1808). Cœlebs in Search of a Wife. Comprehending Observations on Domestic Habits and Manners, Religion and Morals. London: Printed [by Strahan and Preston] for T[homas] Cadell and W[illiam] Davies, in the Strand. OCLC 420533354. Two volumes.
- ^ a b Pickering, Sam (1977). "Hannah More's 'Coelebs in Search of a Wife' and the Respectability of the Novel in the Nineteenth Century". Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. 78 (1): 78–85 – via JSTOR.
- ^ The Frank Muir Book: An irreverent companion to social history, p. 347.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "More, Hannah". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.
Further reading
edit- Calè, L. (2000). "'A Female Band despising Nature's Law': Botany, Gender and Revolution in the 1790s". Romanticism on the Net (17): 0. doi:10.7202/005889ar.
- Cleere, E. (2007). "Homeland Security: Political and Domestic Economy in Hannah More's Coelebs in Search of a Wife". ELH. 74: 1–25. doi:10.1353/elh.2007.0001. S2CID 143751970.
- Pickering, Sam (1977). "Hannah More's 'Coelebs in Search of a Wife' and the Respectability of the Novel in the Nineteenth Century". Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. 78 (1): 78–85.
- Prior, Karen Swallow (2003). Hannah More's Cœlebs in search of a wife - a review of criticism and a new analysis. Lewiston, NY [u.a.]: Mellen. ISBN 978-0773466999.
External links
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