'Oldtown Folks ' Summary

The novel incorporates some spiritual elements, such as deep discussions of God, religious revelations, and visions of ghosts. The story's themes include adoption, schooling, love, death, marriage, and familial secrets. The prose specifically addresses the reader and subverts tropes with plot twists.

Oldtown is a fictional name for the real town of Natick, Massachusetts, the native home of Harriett Beecher Stowe's husband, and many of the ideas in the book come primarily from his memories. Oldtown Folks has claim to be read as a religious novel and often discusses Puritan lifestyles as well as Calvinism and Arminian theology. In addition to these concepts and also the nature of a utopian society, this novel focuses on the question of reproduction and mothering. Written from the perspective of the main character, Horace Holyoke, the novel follows his life in post-American Revolution New England.