Rush, Rebecca

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RUSH, Rebecca

Born 1779; died death date unknown

Wrote under: A Lady of Pennsylvania

Daughter of Jacob and Mary Rench Rush

The daughter of a judge of Philadelphia and the niece of Dr. Benjamin Rush, Rebecca Rush was the child of a prominent, wealthy, and well-educated family. She probably had access to the best education available to young women at that time, and must have moved in the highest social circles. Kelroy: A Novel, Rush's only known work, was published in 1812. The eponymous hero does not appear until the fourth chapter, and the novel is more the story of Mrs. Hammond and her daughters, Lucy and Emily. Having been left moderately well off by the death of her husband, Mrs. Hammond takes her daughters to the country for five years to train them to make advantageous matches when they return to Philadelphia. The elder daughter thinks like her mother; Emily, however, has "a mind of the highest order" and "keen perceptions" and is not interested in her mother's schemes. She falls in love with the impecunious poet, Kelroy. Mrs. Hammond forges letters and bribes people to ruin Emily's relationship with Kelroy. Emily does not learn the truth until after she has married someone else; devastated, she wastes away and dies. When Kelroy learns the truth, he almost loses his reason. Half mad, he travels aimlessly, eventually dying in a shipwreck.

Although Rush uses melodrama and improbable events to move the story, neither is a fatal flaw. The chief virtues of the novel lie in its use of language and in its characters. Rush calls this a "narrative of love," but the emphasis is on clear, rather spare narrative, not on sentimentality. The major characters are often provided with complex personalities, rendering them lively and interesting.

Rush's greatest success is with her "minor" characters. Mrs. Hammond is "a woman of fascinating manners, strong prejudices and boundless ambition," and her single-minded pursuit of financial security so enlivens the book that the reader almost ends up on her side. What is most striking about even very minor characters is that they all behave in manners consistent with their motivations and believable to the reader.

Kelroy is also noteworthy for its very "American" qualities. Most of the characters are strongly individualistic. The ease with which people, especially men and women, meet and talk, and the casual and joking nature of many of their conversations also seem very American. Kelroy 's value lies in the fact that it embodies the best in an emerging national literature in a fairly polished work of art.

Bibliography:

Davidson, K., Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America (1986). Loshe, L. D., The Early American Novel (1907). Petter, H., The Early American Novel (1971).

Reference works:

A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors (1870). Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (1995).