Review: "Harriet and Isabella," Patricia O'Brien

By Paul Carrier

In the second half of the 19th century, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was, as a recent biography by Debby Applegate called him, “the most famous man in America.”

An electrifying preacher, popular newspaper columnist and abolitionist whose Brooklyn-based ministry preached of a loving God rather than fire and brimstone, Beecher hailed from a large and accomplished clan that included sisters Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Isabella Hooker, a prominent feminist. 

Harriet and Isabella tells the fictionalized story of these once-close sisters who fell out after Henry allegedly committed adultery with Elizabeth Tilton, the wife of Henry’s close friend, Theodore Tilton. While Harriett stood with most of the Beechers in supporting Henry’s claims of innocence, Isabella urged her brother to come clean, making her an outcast within her own family.

The novel opens in March 1887, 12 years after the scandal came to a head. The setting is Brooklyn. Henry is comatose and near death as his siblings gather by his side. Isabella, too, hopes to see her brother one last time before he dies, but Henry’s wife Eunice rebuffs her in a flamboyantly cruel fashion. 

Through an extended series of flashbacks, Harriet and Isabella recalls the strong bond the sisters developed in childhood and nurtured for many years thereafter, even as they pursued separate paths to renown. In a touching anecdote that underscores that intimacy, the high-minded Harriet and the impulsive Isabella periodically visit an engraver in the 1850s and 60s whenever a milestone is reached on the road to abolition, to add a new date to Harriet’s bracelet of gold links. The links symbolize slave fetters - a gift from British admirers following the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 

Their eventual rift seems preordained once Isabella meets and befriends Victoria Woodhull, a fellow suffragist and an editor, in 1871. Henry openly criticizes Woodhull when she runs for president in 1872, and that year, Woodhull’s newspaper reports Theodore Tilton’s claim that his wife admitted to having had an affair with Henry. The resulting publicity triggers a scandal and trial that galvanized the nation and tore the Beechers apart. 

Henry Ward Beecher

As would be expected, Harriet and Isabella focuses heavily on the legal proceedings spawned by the adultery charges. Henry survives a church trial, only to face a civil suit filed by Theodore Tilton, alleging alienation of affection. The drawn-out trial proves to be a media sensation that strains the relationships between Henry and his supportive siblings, while doing nothing to reconcile Harriet and Isabella. In fact, Isabella learns during the trial that Henry has described her as a “dribbling fool” and that he even tried to have her institutionalized.

The fact that the case ends with a hung jury leaves Henry’s innocence in doubt, and his reputation tarnished but far from shattered. 

Harriet and Isabella raises thought-provoking questions about the difficulty of coping with conflicting values - in this case, family loyalty on the one hand and a commitment to the truth, however painful, on the other.

While Isabella holds firm in her belief that Henry cheated on his wife and should admit it, she is heartbroken by her family’s rejection of her. And although Harriet and others within the family stand by Henry throughout the ordeal, the novel hints that some of them have nagging doubts about his innocence and their own self-righteousness. 

Does Henry continue to proclaim his innocence in the years following the trial? Who is in the right - Harriet or Isabella? Will Isabella get to say goodbye to her brother before he dies? Do she and Harriet reconcile? 

This may sound like the stuff of soap opera, but it is far more than that in the hands of this thoughtful and perceptive writer. Harriet and Isabella brings the once-esteemed but now largely forgotten Beechers to life and leaves us with a better understanding of why this family has been described as the Kennedys of the 19th century.