Yeah. I read it for the second half of a course called "Women and Literature," which, as you probably gathered, was about women and literature.
Charlotte is this paragon of innocence, sort of like Ellen from Wide Wide World, and she goes to this innocent girl's school in England. One day she sees Montraville, this guy she once danced with at an assembly a while ago and he's all, "Wow, Charlotte grew into her nose or what!" so he, his friend, and Charlotte's French teacher conspire to set up a meeting between the four of them at the dead of night. Charlotte's all, "It's a full moon tonight, I must be in bed before I transform from a pure and virtuous maiden into a BAD GIRL!", while all the while her French teacher is leading her by the hand to the meeting place. These midnight meetings continue for a while, and Charlotte does nothing to stop them because she doesn't want the French teacher to hate her (in the friendship sense, not out of fear for her French grades). She has plenty of friends and loving parents, so you would assume that if the French teacher was making her feel uncomfortable, she would break off their friendship and be done with it, but common sense was not something Charlotte was born with. Anyway, Montraville's in the Navy and he gets called up to go to America. He tells Charlotte to come with him, and she's all "No! I must not disobey my parents!" And, as before, the French teacher leads her to the carriage that will bring her to the ship, Charlotte doesn't question it, then she finds out the carriage is bound to the ship, and she faints. Montraville, his friend, and her French teacher just shrug and pull her into the carriage with them. It all goes downhill from there.
This book was so popular back in the day that fans of the book actually erected a gravestone for her somewhere in New York. The author also wrote a sequel to it called "Lucy Temple," which was about Charlotte's daughter. The most eventful thing that happens to Lucy is that she almost marries her brother by accident. Charlotte Temple was vastly more entertaining in comparison. I believe the whole text can be found on Gutenburg, but Lucy Temple is not. So much the better.
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Charlotte is this paragon of innocence, sort of like Ellen from Wide Wide World, and she goes to this innocent girl's school in England. One day she sees Montraville, this guy she once danced with at an assembly a while ago and he's all, "Wow, Charlotte grew into her nose or what!" so he, his friend, and Charlotte's French teacher conspire to set up a meeting between the four of them at the dead of night. Charlotte's all, "It's a full moon tonight, I must be in bed before I transform from a pure and virtuous maiden into a BAD GIRL!", while all the while her French teacher is leading her by the hand to the meeting place. These midnight meetings continue for a while, and Charlotte does nothing to stop them because she doesn't want the French teacher to hate her (in the friendship sense, not out of fear for her French grades). She has plenty of friends and loving parents, so you would assume that if the French teacher was making her feel uncomfortable, she would break off their friendship and be done with it, but common sense was not something Charlotte was born with. Anyway, Montraville's in the Navy and he gets called up to go to America. He tells Charlotte to come with him, and she's all "No! I must not disobey my parents!" And, as before, the French teacher leads her to the carriage that will bring her to the ship, Charlotte doesn't question it, then she finds out the carriage is bound to the ship, and she faints. Montraville, his friend, and her French teacher just shrug and pull her into the carriage with them. It all goes downhill from there.
This book was so popular back in the day that fans of the book actually erected a gravestone for her somewhere in New York. The author also wrote a sequel to it called "Lucy Temple," which was about Charlotte's daughter. The most eventful thing that happens to Lucy is that she almost marries her brother by accident. Charlotte Temple was vastly more entertaining in comparison. I believe the whole text can be found on Gutenburg, but Lucy Temple is not. So much the better.