Fever 1793
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| Fever, 1793 | |
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 The cover of Fever, 1793 |
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| Author(s) | Laurie Halse Anderson |
| Cover artist | Buck Lane |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date | September 2000 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 251 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0689838583 |
| OCLC Number | 44089242 |
| LC Classification | PZ7.A54385 Fe 2000 |
Fever, 1793 is a historical novel by Laurie Halse Anderson that was published in 2000. Set during the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793, its protagonist and narrator is a teenage girl named Matilda Cook who lives with her hardworking mother, war-fought grandfather, and their ex- slave chef, Eliza, in the apartment on top of their family coffeehouse in Philadelphia. Matilda ("Mattie") Cook is a 14 year old girl with big dreams for her family's coffeehouse. After her father's death, she hoped to build an extension to the coffeehouse, and escape the title: "Little Mattie". But when the yellow fever epidemic outbreaks during the long hot summer, people flee the city or die. Matilda realizes she needs to focus on something else now: fighting for her own life and the lives of her loved ones.
At a book talk at the Elisabeth Morrow School, Anderson revealed she was thinking of making a sequel to Fever, which would also explain what happened to Grandfather's parrot, King George (who is the parrot that appeared in Forge).[citation needed]
Contents |
[edit] Characters
- Matilda - A helpful 14 year old girl who attempts to do as much work as possible to make her family business be the best in Philadelphia , but finds that difficult as the fever rages through the town.
- Matilda's Mother/Lucille Cook - A hardworking woman who labors endlessly at the coffeehouse, right where she belongs. She is the mother of Matilda. She has a slightly fiesty personality considering that her husband dies shortly after marriage. She becomes ill with yellow fever on September 2, 1793.
- Grandfather/Captain William Farnsworth Cook - Matilda's paternal grandfather, who fought with Washington in the American Revolution. Tough, but generous with a sweet disposition.
- Eliza - African American woman who was once a slave, whose deceased husband bought her freedom. Works in the coffeehouse as the chef but retires to her brother's house at the end of each day.
- Nathaniel Benson - Matilda's friend and the painter's apprentice. ( Keeps talking about catching a balloon rise [important in the story] )
- Polly - Matilda's childhood friend and one of the first to die of the fever. ( Mother's servant )
- Nell - A little girl Matilda looks after, after finding her alone in an abandoned house.
[edit] Plot
Matilda lives with her mother and helps around the thriving coffeehouse without her father, who died from falling off of a ladder and breaking his neck. Yellow fever is spreading through Philadelphia, and one by one the people close to Matilda are leaving her, dying. First, many of her neighbors are infected, then her childhood friends, including Polly, their serving girl, then her mother. She is forced to flee to a family friend's home in the country with her grandfather where there is fresh air and a lesser chance to catch the fever. They get left behind by the people they were riding with because of guards patrolling the path, ( keeping the sick out of other cities, believed that her grandfather had the fever because he was coughing. ) While Matilda is trying to keep her grandfather alive, she falls ill with the fever. She is carried to a makeshift hospital by her grandfather and kept there for a few weeks in recovery. When they return to their house, they discover it was robbed by theives. The next night, men broke in while Matilda was sleeping. She had screamed, which woke her grandfather up. Grandfather tries to save Mattie, and ends up being killed when he flies back toward the stairs after shooting an old rifle at the thieves. After this, Matilda is desperate. She wanders searching for her previous caretaker, Eliza, and along the way, finds Nell, a fever orphan. Matilda later finally meets Eliza, and recuperates with their family after awhile. One day, Eliza's two nephews and Nell are infected with yellow fever. They bring the children to the Cook Coffeehouse, ( since it is farther away from the river where fever is strongest ) and all medicines seem to have no good results. Luckily, at the worst of the condition, the children were saved by the frost, which destroyed the mosquitos which caused the pestilence. Matilda decides to take up a new job, as owner of the coffeehouse with Eliza, and life returns to normal in Philadelphia, She meets up with her crush, Nathaniel Benson and Mother returns home.
[edit] Laurie Halse Anderson
She was born in 1961 in Potsdam, New York. She was inspired to write this because she loves the name Matilda.
She is also the author of Chains, which follows the story of a slave during the American Revolution. In a book talk at the Elisabeth Morrow School, Anderson revealed Fever 1793 takes place in the same universe as the Chains series. Anderson is also the author of Wintergirls, which is about an anorexic teen trying to get over the death of her former best friend.
[edit] References
Heavily reading and summarizing the book.
