New Book Alert: The Power to Deny: A Woman of the Revolution Novel by Wendy Long Stanley; Powerful Novel About A Woman of the Age of Enlightenment

New Book Alert: The Power to Deny: A Woman of the Revolution Novel by Wendy Long Stanley; Powerful Novel About A Woman of the Age of Enlightenment



By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The 18th Century was a time of Enlightenment where many questioned and fought in revolutions to change their status. Women were no exception. Many feminist authors and philosophers, such as Margaret Fuller and Mary Wollstonecraft argued for better educational and legal opportunities for women. Recently, I reviewed a biography about such a woman, Elizabeth Craven. One of these women who challenged her role in society was Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson. (1737-1801)

Fergusson was a literary genius and former girlfriend of Benjamin Franklin's son, William. She had a prominent writing career as a poet and translater. One of her most important works was her translation of the French poem, Telemachus. After her mother's death, Fergusson hosted "Attic Evenings"- literary salon gatherings which had the best writers, thinkers, and intellectuals. She did not marry until well into middle age when she wed Henry Hugh Fergusson. They had no children, but Fergusson adopted her niece and nephew. The Fergusson marriage was troubled, particularly after Henry was revealed to be a committed Loyalist. Fergusson stuck to her Patriotic beliefs even after she was accused of passing missives for the British. The Fergussons separated when she learned that her husband impregnated a servant girl. For the rest of her life, Fergusson continued to write poetry and prose until her death in 1801.


Wendy Long Stanley captures this amazing life in her brilliant historical novel, The Power to Deny: A Woman of the Revolution Novel. The 18th century particularly The American Revolution, is seen through the eyes of this vibrant, talented, and intelligent woman.

From the beginning, we already see Elizabeth, called "Betsy" by friends and family, is a highly intelligent forward thinking young lady. While her friends talk about handsome soldiers, colors and styles for gowns, and the latest European fashions, a teenage Elizabeth's eyes glaze other as she thinks about bigger important topics, the ones usually discussed by the men in her life. She is concerned about conflicts with the Native American tribes, whether the Penn family has too much power in her native Pennsylvania, and whether the colonies are being properly represented uner English regulation and legislation.

Elizabeth is a unique person even within her own family. Her sisters, Jane and Ann, have more traditional roles as wives. Elizabeth considers the quiet and domestic, Ann, as her father's favorite because Ann reflects what he believes a woman should be like. Her mother only thinks that Elizabeth's study of poetry and literature as mere ornaments in the ultimate goal towards marriage. Elizabeth's adopted sister, Liza, is supportive but is of a more practical mind that often brings Elizabeth down to earth. Elizabeth however has different ideas: "What called my heart was books and reading and all the words that came to me and asked to be written. I was lifted by great writing: Spenser, Swift, Locke, Johnson. Alas, this wasn't the work for a woman beyond dinner conversation or a turn around the park."


It's no wonder that Elizabeth is captivated by William Franklin. Besides being handsome and charismatic, he is the only person her age with whom she can have a decent intelligent conversation and isn't going to shush her or degrade her opinion because she's a woman. Besides William is just as opinionated as she and his famous father are. Unfortunately, it's this opinionated nature that causes dissension in his and Elizabeth's impending engagement. He publishes humorous articles that criticizes the Penn family and earns the ire of Penn and his supporters-including the Graeme family.

Because of these articles and the fact that Dr. Graeme doesn't like William's father to begin with, William is sent to England and he and Elizabeth have to wait a year to get married. Elizabeth is devestated by the news but continues corresponding with him. That devestation turns to anger when William marries someone else. Elizabeth is naturally furious not just that he broke with her, but that he wasn't honest about it. He married without telling her.


Elizabeth is definitely a woman of high standards. After her sister, Jane, dies and her family takes in her niece and nephew, she can't resist calling their father out for not only being an absent father but for absconding money and leaving his children without any financial support.

Of course those standards play into her marriage with Henry Hugh Fergusson. When she first meets him at one of her Attic Evenings, she at first thinks Henry's a learned intellectual man, someone who is as free spirited as she is. That first impression turns out to become completely false. During the Revolution, Henry manipulates his wife to deliver coded letters even though it causes distrust against her from other Patriots that lasts for years after the war ends. When she learns about his infidelity, Elizabeth severs ties with him and engages in an ultimately successful three year battle to get back her family home, Graeme Park, from Henry after he used his rights as a husband to put it in his name.


Some of the best sections focus on Elizabeth's literary career. After her break with William, Elizabeth accompanies a family friend, Rev. Peters, to England and Scotland, eventually living alone in London when Peters cares for his ailing sister. While in London, she becomes involved in the literary and intellectual circle, befriending notables like Laurence Stern, author of Tristram Shandy, and her former future father in law, Benjamin Franklin.

Even after Elizabeth returns to Philadelphia after her mother's death to assume her role as the female head of the household, she doesn't lose sight of her literary ambitions. She writes and gets some poetry published, including epitaphs for her mother and sisters and a poem called The Dream, encouraging colonists to forgo English goods. She also writes about various medical and scientific breakthroughs, including the discovery of the planet Uranus.

While she is an involved surrogate mother to her niece and nephew, Anny and Johnny, Elizabeth manages to make time for her own interests. Her Attic Evenings, are the center for much political debate, inviting men and women to participate, particularly when such issues as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts are discussed.

Elizabeth's crowning achievement is her translation of Telemachus, an epic French poem about the son of Odysseus. Many paragraphs describes the intense work that she did on the poem by translating the work line by line for over three years. Elizabeth takes pride in adding notes for future Readers and inserting her own poems at the beginning and end. She looks at the end results of Telemachus almost like a mother pleased with the labor and birth of her creation.

This was a woman who throughout her long life knew her own mind and knew how to express it.


The Power to Deny's title comes from advice Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson's mother gives her. She tells her that the only power women have is that of denial, to reject or accept a man's proposal. It is clear from this novel that Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson wielded a lot more power than that.