SOURCE: "The Sentimental Compromise," in The Sentimental Novel in America, 1789-1860, Duke University Press, 1940. Reprint, Pageant Books, Inc., 1959, pp. 358-70.

In the following chapter from his The Sentimental Novel in America, 1789-1860, Brown criticizes the sentimental novel for its idealism and consequent neglect of social and political issues.

The central experiment of the generation had been toward the reconciliation of unlikes—the humanitarian philosophy of enlightenment, perfectibility, democracy, beside the philosophy of acquisition, laissez-faire, gratuitous benevolence. Under this aegis people had played, very earnestly, many variants of a game which may be called Effects without Consequences. Religion without humility. Sensuality without smut. Laissez-faire without oppression. Benevolence without sacrifice. Little Latin and less tears. Salvation without pangs. Administration without statesmanship. Femininity without feminism. Food, and a cupboard undepleted. Bricks without straw. . . .

—E. D. Branch, The Sentimental Years, 1836-1860.

The generation which revealed itself in this abundant outpouring of sentimental...