Rachel Dyer: A North American Story is a Gothic historical novel by American writer John Neal. Published in 1828 in Maine, it is the first bound novel about the Salem witch trials. Though it garnered little critical notice in its day, it influenced works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Walt Whitman. It is best remembered for the American literary nationalist essay, "Unpublished Preface", that precedes the body of the novel.
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.
RachelDyer: A North American Story is a Gothic historical novel by American writer John Neal. Published in 1828 in Maine, it is the first bound novel...
media remain, for the most part, fictional. In John Neal's 1828 novel RachelDyer, a socially isolated Matthew Paris (based on Samuel Parris) feels threatened...
appears as Samuel Parris' daughter in John Neal's historical novel, RachelDyer (1828). Arthur Miller's 1952 play The Crucible is loosely based on actual...
chief rival, John Neal, wrote RachelDyer (1828), the first bound novel about the 17th-century Salem witch trials. RachelDyer also influenced future American...
William Dyer of St Martin-in-the-Fields, fishmonger, and his wife Marie Dyer, otherwise Barret." The fact that the estate of a brother of Mary Dyer would...
Ryder in the 1996 film adaptation of the play. In John Neal's 1828 novel RachelDyer, Abigail Williams appears as the character Bridget Pope. Neal links the...
to the families of the witchcraft victims. In John Neal's 1828 novel RachelDyer, Sarah Good pronounces a curse from the gallows that may have inspired...
underlying hold on American society ripened the blossoming of stories like RachelDyer (the first novel about the Salem witch trials), "The Pit and the Pendulum"...
impactful use as the basis for an item of popular fiction is the 1828 novel RachelDyer by John Neal. Many interpretations have taken liberties with the facts...
children who had maintained that he was innocent. In John Neal's 1828 novel RachelDyer, Martha Corey is depicted as aloof and lacking the mental capacity to...
more fully in earlier works by John Neal: novels Randolph (1823) and RachelDyer (1828). Whitman, likely having read all three, consciously set out to...
Bruce Davison, respectively. Author John Neal made Parris a character in RachelDyer (1828), which is the first bound novel about the witch trials. In this...
accents, including three novels by John Neal: Brother Jonathan (1825), RachelDyer (1828), and The Down-Easters, &c. &c. &c. (1833). The work was one of...
Hutchinson and her friend Mary Dyer, the Quaker martyr, have been remembered at Founders Brook Park with the Anne Hutchinson/Mary Dyer Memorial Herb Garden, a...
declaration was adopted, but never made binding. In John Neal's 1828 novel RachelDyer, Increase Mather appears at the end of Martha Corey's witchcraft trial...
Journal and Belles-Lettres Repository, a New York-based literary journal RachelDyer (1828), by John Neal (1793–1876) American poet John Greenleaf Whittier...
voices, Neal expressed the same year in the "Unpublished Preface" to RachelDyer that "to succeed...[the American writer] must resemble nobody...[he]...
1823, Randolph in 1823, Errata in 1823, Brother Jonathan in 1825, and RachelDyer (earliest use of the Salem witch trials as the basis for a novel) in...
Caribbean by James A. Michener Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton (17th) RachelDyer by John Neal (late 17th) The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder...
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose sea trilogy (1941–1955) and book...
2001 Interview with Rachel Blakely". Solitaryphoenix.com. Retrieved 1 August 2010. Dyer, Renae (5 June 2009). "Gold Coast actor Rachel Blakely's ban on babywear"...
sure you will have your reward in every way." Reading Neal's 1828 novel RachelDyer inspired Whittier to weave New England witchcraft lore into his own stories...
Women of Brewster Place Shira Nayman (born 1960) John Neal (1793–1876), RachelDyer: a North American Story Antonya Nelson (born 1961), Talking in Bed Howard...
Prehistoric Britain through the 1980s The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon RachelDyer: a North American Story by John Neal (Salem witch trials) Logan, a Family...
of America – John James Audubon; The Betrothed – Alessandro Manzoni; RachelDyer – John Neal 1829 in literature – The Misfortunes of Elphin – Thomas Love...
Morier – The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan in England John Neal – RachelDyer: a North American Story Lord Normanby – Yes and No T. J. Llewelyn Prichard...
of explorers led by the narrator, Dr. William Dyer of Miskatonic University. Throughout the story, Dyer details a series of previously untold events in...
Global Information