SOURCE: “Soaring Into Eloquence for Wimmen's Rites: My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet's,”; in Marietta Holley, edited by Nancy A. Walker, Twayne Publishers, 1996, pp. 12-30.

In the following essay from her book-length study on Holley's work, Curry discusses the defining characteristics of Holley's first novel.

In her first published book, My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet's (1873), Marietta Holley introduces her favorite theme of “wimmen's rites” as well as the main characters and literary devices that would advance that theme in the coming decades. The inordinately long subtitle of the book signals the intended audience: “Designed as a Beacon Light, to guide women to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but which may be read by members of the sterner sect, without injury to themselves or the book.” Written under the pseudonym Josiah Allen's Wife, My Opinions is dedicated to “My own Lawful Pardner, Josiah. Whom (although I have been...