Description: Published in 1890, this novel reflects the social reform ideology of the US women's movement in the late nineteenth century. Its theme is the destructive effect of the 'demon' alcohol on the family. The Baptist Messenger, a black religious publication, called it 'one of the silent, yet powerful agents at work to break down unreasonable prejudice, which is a hindrance to both races.'
Review Quotes: "Spillars points out in her introduction that as a 'didactic narrative of the family, ' the book fits into the reform programs of the late nineteenth-century women's movement. In a text punctuated with Bible passages and moral aphorisms, the narrative chronicles the gradual process by which alcohol disrupts and destroys the Burton family and makes orphans of the two protagonists. While admits that the novel does not satisfy post-modernist reader expectations for ambiguity and textual complexity, she believes its final exhortation for a new social order is one that readers will find surprisingly contemporary."--The Women's Review of Books