Hope Leslie, or, Early Times in the Massachusetts is a novel written in 1827 by Catharine Maria Sedgwick. It was highly successful and compared by many critics to The Last of the Mohicans. It is notable for containing themes that are seen today as feminist although it was written before the term "feminism" was coined, and for its promotion of tolerance for Native Americans.Hope Leslie is a generation-spanning historical romance set mainly in 1643. The central character is a Puritan girl living in the American colonies named Hope Leslie. The novel deals mainly with Hope's relationships with her distant cousin and crush, Everell Fletcher, a Native American girl she befriends named Magawisca, and her younger sister, Faith Leslie, who was kidnapped by Native Americans and assimilated into their tribe.
Hope Leslie contains examples of:
- An Arm and a Leg: Happens to Magawisca.
- Disguised in Drag: How Hope uses Cradock to get Magawisca out of jail.
- Going Native: Happens to Hope's sister, Faith.
- Historical Domain Character: John Winthrop, Samuel Gorton, and Mononotto.
- Indian Maiden: Magawisca is this, saving the life of Everell a la Pocahontas and John Smith.
- Kissing Cousins: William and Alice and, years later, Hope and Everell, but in both cases they are distant cousins.
- Never Found the Body: Happens to Sir Philip, which the Puritans attribute to Satan taking the body of his servant back.
- Noble Savage: Magawisca easily falls into this category as well, being one of the most morally exemplary characters in the novel as well as a Native American.
- Protagonist Title
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Roslin, aka Rosa.
- Suck Out the Poison: Averted with Cradock, who is cured of his snakebite by other means.
