Carol J. Singley is Professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden. She is the author of Edith Wharton: Matters of Mind and Spirit and the coeditor, with Caroline Levander, of The American Child: A Cultural Studies Reader.

• Introduction ; 1 Abandoned and Adopted in a New World ; 2 Problems of Patrimony: Benjamin Franklin and Ann Sargent Gage ; 3 Adoption Averted in The Scarlet Letter ; 4 Plotting Adoption: Dependence and Independence ; 5 Child Saving, Nation Building: The Wide, Wide World and The Lamplighter ; 6 Servitude and Homelessness: Harriet Wilson's Our Nig ; 7 The Limits of Nurture: Louisa May Alcott's Adoption Fiction ; 8 Charity Begins and Ends at Home: Edith Wharton's Summer ; Index

Singley's very timely and original re-reading of many classic texts proves once more that we students of the canon never exhaust it. Such rich books as The Scarlet Letter and Our Nig, Little Women, Summer, and others spring to new life under Singley's careful (and historically informed) analysis. An excellent addition to the burgeoning scholarship on childhood and American literature.

Carol J. Singley is Professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden. She is the author of Edith Wharton: Matters of Mind and Spirit and the coeditor, with Caroline Levander, of The American Child: A Cultural Studies Reader.

• Introduction ; 1 Abandoned and Adopted in a New World ; 2 Problems of Patrimony: Benjamin Franklin and Ann Sargent Gage ; 3 Adoption Averted in The Scarlet Letter ; 4 Plotting Adoption: Dependence and Independence ; 5 Child Saving, Nation Building: The Wide, Wide World and The Lamplighter ; 6 Servitude and Homelessness: Harriet Wilson's Our Nig ; 7 The Limits of Nurture: Louisa May Alcott's Adoption Fiction ; 8 Charity Begins and Ends at Home: Edith Wharton's Summer ; Index

Singley's very timely and original re-reading of many classic texts proves once more that we students of the canon never exhaust it. Such rich books as The Scarlet Letter and Our Nig, Little Women, Summer, and others spring to new life under Singley's careful (and historically informed) analysis. An excellent addition to the burgeoning scholarship on childhood and American literature.

Carol J. Singley is Professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden. She is the author of Edith Wharton: Matters of Mind and Spirit and the coeditor, with Caroline Levander, of The American Child: A Cultural Studies Reader.

• Introduction ; 1 Abandoned and Adopted in a New World ; 2 Problems of Patrimony: Benjamin Franklin and Ann Sargent Gage ; 3 Adoption Averted in The Scarlet Letter ; 4 Plotting Adoption: Dependence and Independence ; 5 Child Saving, Nation Building: The Wide, Wide World and The Lamplighter ; 6 Servitude and Homelessness: Harriet Wilson's Our Nig ; 7 The Limits of Nurture: Louisa May Alcott's Adoption Fiction ; 8 Charity Begins and Ends at Home: Edith Wharton's Summer ; Index

Singley's very timely and original re-reading of many classic texts proves once more that we students of the canon never exhaust it. Such rich books as The Scarlet Letter and Our Nig, Little Women, Summer, and others spring to new life under Singley's careful (and historically informed) analysis. An excellent addition to the burgeoning scholarship on childhood and American literature.