<DIV>From the author of <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>, a domestic comedy that examines slavery, Protestant theology, and gender differences in early America.<p> First published in 1859, Harriet Beecher Stowe's third novel is set in eighteenth-century Newport, Rhode Island, a community known for its engagement in both religious piety and the slave trade. Mary Scudder lives in a modest farmhouse with her widowed mother an their boarder, Samuel Hopkins, a famous Calvinist theologian who preaches against slavery. Mary is in love with the passionate James Marvyn, but Mary is devout and James is a skeptic, and Mary's mother opposes the union. James goes to sea, and when he is reportedly drowned, Mary is persuaded to become engaged to Dr. Hopkins.<p> With colorful characters, including many based on real figures, and a plot that hinges on romance, <i>The Minister's Wooing</i> combines comedy with regional history to show the convergence of daily life, slavery, and religion in post-Revolutionary New England.</DIV>