&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:Seventy-Six_by_John_Neal_volume_1_first_edition_(1823)_Title_Page.jpg) Title page of the first edition, volume 1 | |
| Author | John Neal |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Set in | American Revolutionary War |
| Publisher | Joseph Robinson |
Publication date | 1823 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 528 (first edition) |
| OCLC | 12207391 |
| Text | Seventy-Six at Wikisource |
Seventy-Six is a historical fiction novel by American writer John Neal. 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, 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 writers. The narrative prose resembles spoken American English more than any other literature of its period. It was the first work of American fiction to use the phrase son-of-a-bitch.
The story is told by Continental Army soldier Jonathan Oadley and follows multiple love stories that interweave with battle scenes and the overall progress of the war. It explores male pain and self-loathing resulting from violent acts committed in war and duels. A response to James Fenimore Cooper's The Spy (1821) and inspired by Neal's work on A History of the American Revolution (1819), the novel was written over twenty-seven days in early 1822. It was generally well received at publication, raised Neal's national status as an author, and is considered by some scholars and the author himself to be his best novel, though consensus among scholars is that the book is more of a failure in construction than it is a success in style. It was largely forgotten by the 20th century.