Browse Items (3304 total)

"Ellen's Ardent Admirer" to Susan Warner, New York, September 27, 1851, February 28, 1852

Ellen's Admirer 1 001.jpg

In this lengthy two-part letter "Ellen's Ardent Admirer" gives his opinion on most of the principle characters. In his second letter he remarks on the American character Warner displays naturally through her characters.

Godey's Lady's Book,
September 1851

Reviewer appreciates The Wide, Wide World, especially as a book for children; mistakenly exposes the novel's Scottish authorship ("appears as an American book, but it is utterly deficient in American spirit")

Subjects: Dedicated Review, Mixed Stance

Identifier: rev10

The Dollar Magazine,
March 01, 1851

Reviewer acknowledges the book's good intentions; points negatively to its overt didacticism; makes fun of the author's overreliance on tears

Subjects: Dedicated Review, Mixed Stance

Identifier: rev04

The Independent,
May 6, 1852

Reviewer of Warner's Queechy discusses the fame of its author and the literary success of The Wide, Wide World

Subjects: Authorship/Celebrity, Postive Stance

Identifier: rev18

The Literary World,
December 28, 1850

Reviewer compliments The Wide, Wide World for standing out among the "now common class of religious novels"; offers an excerpt illustrating the novel's "agreeable style"; concludes with a complaint about the author's "diffuseness" (novel mistakenly attributed to "Emily" Wetherell)

Subjects: Dedicated Review, Mixed Stance

Identifier: rev01

The National Era,
October 16, 1851

Reviewer praises The Wide, Wide World for its verisimilitude and its heroine's religious journey; appreciates the novel's ending

Subjects: Dedicated Review, Postive Stance

Identifier: rev11

The North American Review,
January 1853

Reviewer investigates the current state of the novel as compared with its eighteenth-century forebears; considers contemporary tendencies toward moral argumentation; expresses mixed feelings about the genre's evolution; discusses The Wide, Wide World, Queechy, and Dollars and Cents as positive examples of a new class of American novel, "having a character of their own--humane, religious, piquant, natural, national"

Subjects: Literary Field, Mixed Stance

Identifier: rev33

The Southern Literary Messenger,
April 1854

Reviewer discusses the growth of literature for "juveniles" and its generic potential; praises Warner's contributions to the field

Subjects: Literary Field, Postive Stance

Identifier: rev60

The Wide, Wide World First-Edition E-Book

A clean, edited reading copy of George P. Putnam's first edition of The Wide, Wide World.

Identifier: 74CIA_22

Zion's Herald and Wesleyan Journal,
August 27, 1851

Reviewer admires the novel's exemplary religious lessons; recommends the book to Christian families

Subjects: Dedicated Review, Postive Stance

Identifier: rev08