Rachel Dyer
![1828 spine label](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Rachel_Dyer_Spine_Label.png)
Following a darkly poetic narrative, the story centers on historical figure George Burroughs and fictional witch hysteria victim, Rachel Dyer. With about two-thirds of the story taking place in the courtroom, it follows the trials of multiple alleged witches. Themes include justice, sexual frustration, mistreatment of Indigenous Americans by Puritans, the myth of national American unity in the face of pluralist reality, and republican ideals as an antidote for Old World precedent.
Originally written in 1825 as a short story for ''Blackwood's Magazine'', ''Rachel Dyer'' was expanded after Neal returned to his hometown, Portland, Maine, from a sojourn in London. He experimented with speech patterns, dialogue, and transcriptions of Yankee dialect, crafting a style for the novel that Neal hoped would come to characterize American literature. Ultimately, the style overshadowed the novel's plot. ''Rachel Dyer'' is widely considered to be Neal's most successful novel, with a more controlled construction than his preceding books. A second edition was not released until it was republished by facsimile in 1964. Provided by Wikipedia
Please enable Javascript.
Please upgrade your browser.