ABSTRACT
Catharine Maria Sedgwick, born in Massachusetts, wrote domestic fiction, romantic novels, and numerous moral tracts for both children and adults. Sedgwick was committed to women's rights, but remained detached from radical reform movements. Married or Single?, her last novel, aims to depict unmarried women in a positive light. The writer of New-England Tale has made a humble effort to add something to the scanty stock of native American literature. This Tale might be left to its natural death, or obscurity, overshadowed by fresher and superior productions of the same species, but that it derives some claim to sufferance from its priority in time. The progress of civilization, and the facilities of communication, have levelled all distinctions. There is no village so secluded now as to be surprised by the fashions of the town, and scarcely a country-bred lady to be detected by her rusticity.
