NARRATING SOCIAL THEORY: WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS'S "WOODCRAFT"

Dye criticizes William Gilmore Simms' "Woodcraft," which offers the latter's most fully and carefully constructed explorations of social order. She further notes that the novel represents Simms' most distinguished work for both aesthetic and sociological reasons: the relatively settled and localized aspect of the novel creates the necessity for greater character development than the more action-oriented novels of the Border Romances or the other Revolutionary Romances.