''A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent'' is a 1762 novel by Sarah Scott.

Content

was Scott's most significant novel. It was popular enough to go into four editions by 1778, and interest in it has revived in the 21st century among

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

literary scholars. The book takes the form of a frame tale and a series of adventures, as the narrator's long-lost cousin relates how each of the residents arrived at the female utopia, Millenium Hall. The adventures are remarkable for their reliance on a nearly superstitious form of

divine grace Divine grace is a theological term present in many religions. It has been defined as the divine influence which operates in humans to regenerate and sanctify, to inspire virtuous impulses, and to impart strength to endure trial and resist temptati ...

, where God's will manifests itself with the direct punishment of the wicked and the miraculous protection of the innocent. In one tale, a woman about to be ravished by a man is saved, literally by the hand of God, as her attacker dies of a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

. The Hall the characters live in is a model of mid-century reform ideas. All the women have crafts with which to better themselves. Property is held in common, and education is the primary pastime. Elizabeth Montagu, Sarah Scott's sister, had become a leader of the bluestockings, a coterie of reform-minded individuals. They believed in female equality, education, and limited economic justice. They were also active in prison and health care reform. Although Elizabeth may be lightly satirized in the figure of Lady Brumpton in ''Millenium Hall,'' the Hall is a fictional embodiment of bluestocking ideals. At the same time, there is a notable critique of heterosexual sexuality in ''Millenium Hall.'' This antipathy is usually expressed in religious terms, as all of the sexual acts in the novel are either forms of rape or sin. Further, the characters in the novel who are married or who have children are so without any indication of romantic love between the partners. Instead of romantic love, the novel posits female friendship under a powerful duty to piety. Female friendship is constant, but it is also emphatically antiseptic by being non-sexual.

Reception

Although ''Millenium Hall'' has received renewed attention, it is not a novel that participates in the tradition of the novel in general as traditionally defined by scholarship. Sarah Scott's novel is not primarily interested in character (as Samuel Richardson's had been or Frances Burney's would be) or social act (as Henry Fielding's had been) or entertainment (as

Aphra Behn Aphra Behn (; bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barrie ...

's had been). Instead, her novel is directed toward morality, example, and, to some degree, a polemic of female education. It seeks to reform the individual female who might the novel and engage the male reader in pity. As the subtitle to the novel says, it contains "Anecdotes and Reflections as May excite in the Reader proper Sentiments of Humanity, and lead the Mind to the Love of VIRTUE," with 'virtue' being understood in its masculine (''virtus'') and feminine (''virginity'') senses.

External links

* 1762 novels 1760s fantasy novels {{18thC-novel-stub