Susanna Rowson--novelist, actress, playwright, poet, school founder, and early national celebrity--bears little resemblance to the title character in her most famous creation, Charlotte Temple. Yet this best-selling novel has long been perceived as the prime exemplar of female passivity and subjugation in the early Republic. Marion Rust disrupts this view by placing the novel in the context of Rowson's life and other writings. Rust shows how an early form of American sentimentalism mediated the constantly shifting balance between autonomy and submission that is key to understanding both Rowson's work and the lives of early American women. Rust proposes that Rowson found a wide female audience in the young Republic because she articulated meaningful female agency without sacrificing accountability to authority, a particularly useful skill in a nation that idealized womanhood while denying women the most basic rights. Rowson, herself an expert at personal reinvention, invited her readers, theatrical audiences, and students to value carefully crafted female self-presentation as an instrument for the attainment of greater influence. Prodigal Daughters demonstrates some of the ways in which literature and lived experience overlapped, especially for women trying to find room for themselves in an increasingly hostile public arena.

Beverly Lewis Bestseller, Beautifully Repackaged In The Prodigal, Leah Ebersol knows all too well that the truth can be thorny, even heartbreaking. But when an alarming secret is brought to light, she must make another difficult choice, one that could be further complicated by a prodigal who few expected to return.

The stories of 17 women who left South Africa during the years of apartheid.

In this memorable book, seventeen women of the Baby Boom generation tell their poignant personal stories of apostasy and repentance. Each left the Catholic Church to seek autonomy and fulfillment on the major cultural battlegrounds of this era. Each eventually turned homeward to find, like her prodigal brother in the best-loved of Christ's parables, that her Heavenly Father had been calling her throughout her absence, watching and yearning for her return. Feminists in the bureaucratic networks of Catholic dissent continually predict that women will abandon the Church en masse unless they are soon admitted to the hierarchy. The women who recount their experiences in this timely and important book prove the dissenters wrong. They are representative of a growing stream of "reverts" who have recognized and repented of their errors when they rediscovered the living heart of Christ at the center of the Church. Today, when virtually all faithful Catholics wait and pray for the return of some family member or friend who has strayed from the Church, these accounts of faith reborn offer hope and direction to lift the heart of every reader. "A terrific group of stories. A must not only for younger people who have lost faith in their childhood Catholic Faith, but also for older Catholics to understand the reasoning both behind the defection of the young and also their intense yearning to find their way back. Thank you Donna Steichen for this gem." —Ronda Chervin, Ph.D. Donna Steichen, author of the best-selling book Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism, is a Catholic journalist and former teacher.

Candid, real, raw and challenging you will never find a more honest look at how identity gets lost in today's modern world than you will in Prodigal Daughter: A Journey Home To Identity. TV personality and Evangelist, Cynthia Garrett, shares an incredible red carpeted, celebrity filled, journey through her life, while teaching lessons that only experience applied to the Word Of God can teach. Whether through the luring appeal of the media, the shattering of divorce, the shame of sexual abuse, the anger of rape, the fear in battling cancer, the challenges of single motherhood, the war for self esteem, the confusion of fame, or the healing found in confronting brokenness head on, Cynthia Garrett teaches while she shares. She leads the reader on a very personal and powerful journey to finally finding, owning, and living victoriously in his/her authentic identity; even as she illustrates losing and finding her own amidst the privileged life she lived, and still lives, in Hollywood. We meet a faith that is inclusive and unifying as Cynthia teaches hundreds of thousands of men and women around the world today about faith in a way that builds bridges and doesn't divide, embraces rather than rips apart, and loves triumphantly over hate. All while keeping it real and uncompromised! Through Cynthia's story you will find your own story and through her search for identity yours will be solidified forever! Like all prodigal children the journey home is one that ends in the triumphant victory of a Father's open arms. But for prodigal daughters there is a special reward in finding a love you've always searched for, the knowledge you've always needed, and the life you've always dreamed of. Simply stated...this book is a MUST read!

A daughter, who overcame unbelievable odds, and a mother, who spent much time agonizing over how to reach her daughter before it was too late, together tell the unbelievable true story of a "regular teen" who transformed from the sweet daughter of the local Baptist pastor into a hell-raising and conniving drug-dealer's wife. The Prodigal Daughter is a story for: Any teen seeking love and acceptance; Any frustrated parent seeking avenues to communicate with their kids; Any addict who thinks they can never be free; Any person who wonders if their sins are too many for God to forgive; Anyone who ever doubted that God works in mysterious ways; Anyone who is ready for a story that will make you get angry, laugh, cry, hold your breath repeatedly, cheer, and then walk away encouraged!

When you’re the parent of a prodigal, you know you can never pray enough. But how do you persevere when you’re tired and discouraged? Prayers for Prodigals offers encouragement for parents to “come boldly before the throne of grace” and intercede daily for their children through a series of inspirational prayers. The book also includes fourteen brief meditations, which are drawn from Scripture and the writer’s and others’ personal experiences with prodigal children, such as Ruth and Billy Graham and Monica, the mother of Augustine. This unique book inspires parents in a sustained, daily prayer effort for their prodigal children.

Offering hope, help, and encouragement to hurting parents of prodigal daughters, author Janet Thompson shares out of her own experience as a prodigal daughter and as the mother of a prodigal daughter. And the key to the help she offers is prayer. While you, as a hurting mom or dad, may know that you need to pray for your daughter, this walk-along-beside-you book will take you gently by the hand and show you how. In it you will find candid stories of other parents of prodigals -- and even the stories of prodigals themselves. Don't wait until you have a prodigal situation. Any parent will benefit from this book's incredible insights, prayers, and stories. Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter is about hope, help, and support from others who have walked a similar road. Chapter Topics Include • Setting Boundaries • Surviving in Marriage • Resolving Conflict • Making it All About Her • What Did We Do to Cause This?

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR NPR • Time Magazine • The Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • The Boston Globe A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK From one of our most accomplished and widely admired historians—a revelatory portrait of Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister, Jane, whose obscurity and poverty were matched only by her brother’s fame and wealth but who, like him, was a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator. Making use of an astonishing cache of little-studied material, including documents, objects, and portraits only just discovered, Jill Lepore brings Jane Franklin to life in a way that illuminates not only this one extraordinary woman but an entire world.