The Missionary: An Indian Tale

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The Missionary: An Indian Tale (1811) is a sentimental romance novela by Irish author Sydney Owenson (described on the title-page as "Miss Owenson"). The book presents a love story, marked by tragedy, between a Western clergyman and an Indian princess. This forbidden love symbolizes the clash of cultures, with much of the narrative set in the Kashmir Valley, India, during a period of intense political turmoil and religious fervor. [1] [2]

Percy Bysshe Shelley admired The Missionary intensely [3] and Owenson's heroine is said to have influenced some of his own orientalist productions. [4]

The author later revised the work, shortly before her death in 1859, renaming it Luxima, the Prophetess. [5]

Notes

  1. Diane Long Hoeveler; Jeffrey Cass (1 January 2006). "Chapter 8". Interrogating Orientalism: Contextual Approaches and Pedagogical Practices. Ohio State University Press. ISBN   978-0-8142-1032-1.
  2. Dabundo, Laura Susan. “‘The Sabbath of the Heart’: Transgressive Love in Lady Morgan’s India.” The Wordsworth Circle, vol. 41, no. 2, 2010, pp. 84–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24043600. Accessed 5 Oct. 2023.
  3. Belanger, Jacqueline E. (2007). Critical Receptions: Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan. Academica Press, LLC. p. 126. ISBN   978-1-930901-67-4.
  4. Shelley, Percy Bysshe (2012). The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley. JHU Press. pp. 365, 403, 893. ISBN   978-1-4214-1109-5.
  5. Parsons, Cóilín. “‘GREATLY ALTERED’: THE LIFE OF SYDNEY OWENSON’S INDIAN NOVEL.” Victorian Literature and Culture, vol. 38, no. 2, 2010, pp. 373–85. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25733480. Accessed 5 Oct. 2023.


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