Is Medusa laughing again?

Abstract

Caroline Lee Hentz's novella Fatal Cosmetic (1839) and Rebekah Hyneman's serial novella The Fatal Cosmetic (1853) are harbingers of American sensation fiction, though for more than a century and a half they were doomed to oblivion. Although different in style and characterization, both novelists aimed at propagating social and political agendas. This paper examines the development of this genre's key elements from earlier conformist ones to their later comprehensive materialization. Moreover, it examines the possible mythological and historical sources Hyneman's novella draws on.