Charlemont: Or, the Pride of the Village

by William Gilmore Simms

Early in the morning of 7 November 1825, in the town of Frankfort, KY, a young lawyer named Jereboam O. Beauchamp crept to the house of the state attorney general, Solomon P. Sharp, and stabbed him to death. The murder was orchestrated to avenge the honor of Anna Cook, Beauchamp's wife, who as a single woman had been seduced, impregnated, and abandoned by Sharp. The event was a national sensation immediately following its discovery and Beauchamp's capture days later. Following Cook and Beauchamp's failed joint suicide attempt and the latter's subsequent execution, the event has entered the realm of legend and come to be referred to as the "Kentucky Tragedy." As such, it has inspired a variety of literary treatments from its own time to the present.

Simms' first Kentucky Tragedy volume details the early life of the heroine in her frontier Kentucky village, including her gradual seduction by a pseudonymous Sharp. Therefore, this portion of the story is almost entirely fictional.

488 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1860

About the author

William Gilmore Simms (April 17, 1806 – June 11, 1870) was a poet, novelist and historian from the American South whose novels achieved great prominence during the 19th century, with Edgar Allan Poe pronouncing him the best novelist America had ever produced. In recent decades, though, Simms' novels have fallen out of favor, although he is still known among literary scholars as a major force in antebellum Southern literature. He is also remembered for his strong support of slavery and for his opposition to Uncle Tom's Cabin, in response to which he wrote reviews and a novel.

Reviews

[Miles Smith]

Simms' melodramatic novelization of the real life Kentucky tragedy is excellent, if slow going. So basically like all of Simms' novels.