icon for Home page
icon for Kid's Home page
icon for Digital Collection
icon for Activities
icon for Turns Exhibit
icon for In the Classroom
icon for Chronologies
icon for My Collection

Things To Do
Dress Up | 1st Person | African American Map | Now Read This | Magic Lens | In the Round | Tool Videos | Architecture | e-Postcards | Chronologies | Turns Activities

Send an E-Postcard of:
"A Moral Tale"

Title page
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

The Deerfield, Massachusetts, Social Library owned all three volumes of Moral Tales, a series of plays and stories published in London in 1800. This first volume included an English translation of "The Shepherdess of the Alps," a French play written in 1766. The play tells the tragic story of a forbidden love affair between two young French aristocrats. The decision by Adelaide and her lover, the Count D'Orestan, to run away together over the objections of their families leads to D'Orestan's death. A grief-stricken Adelaide digs her lover's grave with her bare hands, renounces the world and becomes a poor shepherdess. She at last finds happiness after she reveals her true identity to a French nobleman (also disguised as a simple shepherd). The exotic Alpine setting and romantic interludes appealed to youthful readers. In addition, the heroine of this "moral tale" modeled the feminine behavior and virtues American society believed women could and should attain.

 

top of page

Share this image with a friend.
Simply enter their e-mail address below and we'll send them this image in an e-mail greeting, along with a link to see the image on our site.

To E-Mail Address *
From E-Mail Address *
From Name
Message

* = Required


button for Side by Side Viewingbutton for Glossarybutton for Printing Helpbutton for How to Read Old Documents

 

Home | Online Collection | Things To Do | Turns Exhibit | Classroom | Chronologies | My Collection
About This Site | Site Index | Site Search | Feedback