The Chautauqua Girls At Home.

Written in the earnest, faith-centred tradition of American popular fiction, this novel follows a group of young women trying to keep the resolutions of a religious awakening once ordinary life resumes.

What it's about

The Chautauqua Girls at Home takes up its characters after the fervour of a Chautauqua gathering and asks the harder question, what happens next. Back among family, friends, social pressures and small temptations, the young women strive to carry their renewed Christian commitment into the routines of home and community. The story unfolds through the everyday incidents and moral choices in which their sincerity is tried and their influence quietly spreads.

Themes

Faith lived out in daily conduct is the book's central concern, along with friendship, self-improvement and the shaping of character. It reflects the earnest reforming and devotional spirit of its time and the belief that private goodness could reach outward into the world.

Why it still matters

This kind of improving fiction was hugely popular in nineteenth-century America and shaped the moral imagination of many readers. It offers a vivid glimpse of the Chautauqua movement and of an age that took the practice of faith seriously in fiction.

Who it's for

For readers who enjoy gentle, faith-centred stories, and for those interested in nineteenth-century American religious and social life.