The Hero Who Disappointed: Images of Lajos Kossuth and the Hungarian Revolution of 1848/49 in Livermore’s Zoë; or the Quadroon’s Triumph

Abstract

This article studies US American perceptions of the European Revolutions of 1848/49, especially the different receptions of the Hungarian revolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth’s sojourn in the US, through an analysis of a rather unknown novel Zoë; or the Quadroon’s Triumph (1855). Benefiting from different sources, the article examines the impacts of the revolutions of Europe in the US literary, cultural, religious, and political sceneries by pointing to how even non-canonical works reflected upon these influences.