Self-Raised; Or, From the Depths (ePub)

Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth (1819-1899) was a preeminent American novelist of the Victorian era, who found an expansive readership both at home and abroad with her sensational tales and domestic narratives. Born in Washington, D.C., Southworth moved through her early life facing financial hardships, an experience that colored much of her later writing. She married Frederick H. Southworth in 1840, but the union was neither happy nor lasting. By the early 1850s, she was a struggling single mother of two and began writing to support her family, quickly becoming a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines. Southworth's career was marked by her prolific output, penning more than 60 novels throughout her lifetime. Her work was characterized by melodramatic plots and often featured strong female protagonists wrestling with social conventions and personal dilemmas. 'Self-Raised; Or, From the Depths' (1876) is a sequel to her enormously successful novel, 'Ishmael; Or, In the Depths' (1876), and continues to explore themes of class mobility and personal triumph. Southworth was a master at using cliffhangers and serialized storytelling, helping her amass a vast readership. While her literary reputation has waned since her time, Southworth was a significant figure in 19th-century American literature, paving the way for future writers with her explorations of women's independence and resilience.