Macaria: Or, Altars of Sacrifice - Paperback

by Augusta Jane Evans (Author), Drew Gilpin Faust (Introduction by)

First published in 1864, Macaria; or, Altars of Sacrifice was the third novel of Augusta Jane Evans, one of the leading women writers of nineteenth-century domestic fiction. A wartime best seller, with more than twenty thousand copies in circulation in the print-starved Confederacy before the war's end, the novel was also extremely well received along the Union front, so much so that some northern officials thought it should be banned. Long out of print and largely unavailable until now, Macaria is a compelling narrative about women and war.

Back Jacket

Evans charts the journey of two southern women toward ultimate self-realization through their service in the war-torn Confederacy. Discarding the theme of romantic fulfillment, Evans skillfully crafts a novel about women compelled by the departure and death of so many southern men to find meaning in their own 'single blessedness, ' rather than in marriage.

Author Biography

Drew Gilpin Faust is Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of several books, including The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South and James Henry Hammond and the Old South: A Design for Mastery, for which she received the Charles S. Sydnor Award.