Married or Single?, published in 1857, was Catharine Maria Sedgwick s final novel and a fitting climax to the career of one of antebellum America s first and most successful woman writers. Insisting on women s right to choose whether to marry, Married or Single? rejects the stigma of spinsterhood and offers readers a wider range of options for women in society, recognizing their need and ability to determine the course of their lives.

Sedgwick s touching, witty, and shrewdly observant novel centers on Grace Herbert, a New York City socialite who must...