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The Coquette
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coquette, by Hannah Webster Foster This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Coquette The History of Eliza Wharton
Author: Hannah Webster Foster
Release Date: May 25, 2004 [EBook #12431]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: Eliza Wharton]
THE COQUETTE; OR, THE HISTORY OF ELIZA WHARTON.
A NOVEL: FOUNDED ON FACT.
BY A LADY OF MASSACHUSETTS.
HISTORICAL PREFACE, INCLUDING A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
He who waits beside the folded gates of mystery, over which forever float the impurpled vapors of the PAST, should stand with girded loins, and white, unshodden feet. So he who attempts to lift the veil that separates the REAL from the IDEAL, or to remove the heavy curtain that for a century may have concealed from view the actual personages of a well-drawn popular fiction, or what may have been received as such, should bring to his task a tender heart and a delicate and gentle hand.
Thus, in preparing an introductory chapter for these pages which are to follow, many and various thoughts suggest themselves, and it is necessary to recognize and pursue them with gentleness and caution.
The romance of "Eliza Wharton" appeared in print not many years subsequent to the assumed transactions it so faithfully attempts to record. Written as it was by one highly educated for the ti