CryptoWiki:Today's featured article/January 2, 2022

John Neal

Seventy-Six is a historical fiction novel by American writer John Neal (pictured). Published in Baltimore in 1823, it is the fourth novel written about the American Revolutionary War. Historically distinguished for its pioneering use of colloquial language, the Yankee dialect, battle scene realism, high characterization, stream of consciousness narrative, profanity, and depictions of sex and romance, the novel foreshadowed and influenced later American fiction. With narrative prose that resembles spoken American English more than any other period literature, it was the first work of American fiction to use the phrase son-of-a-bitch. It explores male pain and self-loathing resulting from violent acts committed in war and duels. Inspired by his own historical research, Neal took only twenty-seven days to write the 528-page novel, reporting that "I tumbled out of my chair" because "I had fainted, – swooned, – from overwork." (Full article...)

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