In the early 1800s, innocent, naïve 28 year old Lucinda is raped and abandoned by her caddish suitor. She becomes pregnant and falls into a state of torpor and constant tears. She returns to her father’s house and he and his new wife, Lucinda’s step-mother, take her in and vow to support her. Because she is poor and from a respectable, but impoverished family (her father is a schoolteacher), there are legal issues with if she can stay in the town or not. It is not too much of a spoiler to indicate that tragic Lucinda, who has been sanctified by her suffering, doesn’t survive childbirth.

The narrative takes the form of letters sent by the real-life step-mother to her sister. Over and over again, the step-mother writes how she loves Lucinda like her own daughter. It did make me wonder why the step-mother chose to publish the tale of her Lucinda’s “transgression,” as the audience of the time would have seen it. I think she must have thought it would serve as a cautionary tale to warn other young women not to get involved with dishonorable men. But how was Lucinda to know?

As a product of its time, this memoir is of academic interest only. ( )