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Loading... Veil of fear : nineteenth-century convent tales by Rebecca Reed and Maria Monkby Rebecca Theresa Reed, Maria Monk
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Reprints of stories by 2 women who claim to have escaped from convents in the 1830's and the awful things that happened to them there. Their 2 books sold about 300,000 copies each. One book helped spark a night of violence that resulted in the convent (in Charleston, Mass) being burned to the ground by an angry anti-Catholic mob. no reviews | add a review
Rebecca Reed and Maria Monk may not be well-known authors today, but these women were publishing sensations in nineteenth-century America. Their lurid tales of life in two North American convents, one in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and the other in Montreal, Canada, sold more than one-half million copies. Reed escaped from the Ursuline convent in Charlestown in 1832. Her dramatic renditions of Roman Catholic ritual practice helped spark a night of violence that resulted in the convent being burned to the ground by an angry mob. Reed's published narrative, Six Months in a Convent, appeared just as the trials of the rioters were ending in 1835, and became an instant literary success. Monk's supporters capitalized on the lucrative market in anti-Catholic literature, by bringing out the pseudo-pornographic Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery in 1836. Monk, who claimed her infant daughter had been fathered by a Catholic priest, was in fact a Montreal prostitute rather than a nun. She enjoyed the life of a literary star in New York before her hoax was uncovered. These two narratives are now available for the first time in a single paperback edition. Nancy Lusignan Schultz's introduction provides a fascinating glimpse into the history, development, and marketing of these phenomenal best-sellers. The convent tales by Reed and Monk are classics that must be read by those interested in American studies, popular culture, social and religious history, literature, and women's studies. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)271.9002273Religions History, geographic treatment, biography of Christianity Religious Congregations and Orders in Church history Orders of WomenLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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