Janice Meredith: A Story of the American Revolution

Before Gone with the Wind captured the world's imagination, there was Janice Meredith: a novel so beloved it sold over 200,000 copies in its first year alone. Paul Leicester Ford's sweeping historical romance follows Janice, a headstrong colonial girl caught between loyalty to her father and sympathy for the revolutionary cause tearing her world apart. When a mysterious contract servant named Karol arrives at her family's estate, Janice finds herself entangled in forbidden love while George Washington himself enters her life, saving her more than once from the chaos of war. The novel is set during the American Revolution (1774-1782), showing the war through ordinary families on both sides of the conflict. Ford renders his characters with all their human weakness and occasional greatness, weaving battle scenes with romantic entanglements and sharp, witty dialogue. The result is a novel that captures the revolutionary era not as distant history, but as a time when people's lives were upended and their hearts tested. It endured for decades before fading from print, but remains a remarkable artifact of American historical fiction.