French Women, Italian Art, and Other “Advocates of the Body” in Harriet Beecher Stowe's The Minister's Wooing

Displays of sanctified eroticism in The Minister's Wooing reveal Harriet Beecher Stowe's conviction that the body is inherently holy. The author's experience of religious paintings and her observation of French women in Europe deepened her belief that the female body is an instrument of spirituality, as can be traced in the novel.