The Minister's Wooing

The Minister's Wooing is a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and first published in 1859.

Set in a coastal New England town in the 19th century, this time the author tells the story of Mary Scudder, a pious young woman who faces an inner dilemma when her beloved, James Marvyn, disappears at sea.

The crossroads comes when Reverend Hopkins, a pious and devout minister, proposes to her while the young woman waits for news of James...

"Mrs. Katy Scudder had invited Mrs. Brown, and Mrs. Jones, and Deacon Twitchel’s wife to take tea with her on the afternoon of June second, A. D. 17—.
When one has a story to tell, one is always puzzled which end of it to begin at. You have a whole corps of people to introduce that you know and your reader doesn’t; and one thing so presupposes another, that, whichever way you turn your patchwork, the figures still seem ill-arranged. The small item that I have given will do as well as any other to begin with, as it certainly will lead you to ask, ‘Pray, who was Mrs. Katy Scudder?’—and this will start me systematically on my story."