Early American literature, very popular, rivaled sales of Uncle Tom's Cabin, reminded of Richardson's Clarissa, only less violent. Mindless, easily swayed female so desperate for a man's attention she will go along with anything! Meh.....Don't waste your time. ( )

Charlotte Temple is a foolish girl, eloping with a man to America at the promptings of her teacher. Of course, it wouldn't end well and she was abandoned by the man, although it must be said that he did try to provide for her. What is touching is Charlotte regretting her impulsive act and thus causing sorrow to her parents. At least she was able to hand her child over to her father when he came to look for her. ( )

Remorse with a side dish of guilt is the theme of Charlotte Temple, a US bestseller before the term existed. The tale is universal - a lovely, well-brought-up, moral young woman takes a tiny step astray with the encouragement of a seeming friend. Guilt from taking the small step keeps her from admitting the error, and makes it easier to continue to move in a direction that she knows to be wrong. The morality tale is drawn to show the young female reader how easy it is to become a Fallen Woman, and how difficult to recover. While the tale is set in the 1700's, the theme is just as relevant today although the situation itself would not raise as many eyebrows. ( )

I think that it is a great book for American Literature classes and the content is quite interesting. It is useful for high school level English classes too.

It's one of these Georgian/Victorian cautionary tales, except it was written in America, probably among the first of the genre to be written there. It doesn't renew the genre, but it had the advantage of being shorter than its British counterparts like Richardson's or Burney's. For me, it's one of those classics which don't age well because their subject matter is so close to the morals of the times. ( )