Susan Petigru King-Bowen (1824 - 1875) - Author Collection

Susan Dupont Petigru King-Bowen was a 19th-century socialite, realist, fiction writer and novelist. Her work focused on subversive portrayals of South Carolina aristocracy, in which men toyed with women’s affections, women plotted against one another’s best interests, and mothers forced daughters to choose wealth over romance. Due to her lack of in-text references to the American Civil War, slavery or the abolitionist movement, Sue’s work has been widely ignored among critics. It is only recently, as part of a renewed interest in 19th-century women writers, that her writing has begun to receive critical attention.