The year is 1819. The place is Litchfield, Connecticut.
This book of historical fiction recounts the adventures of six students, three men at the nation's first law school, the Litchfield Law School, and their love interests at the Litchfield Female Academy.
Eb Wells and Thomas Bradford traveled from Savannah to study law. Thomas, an alcoholic dandy, pursues Katherine Montgomery, a Southern belle, who rejects him. Charles Godwin, an artist and reluctant law student, falls for the boisterous Martha Lewis, but their romance hits a paternal roadblock. Eb is smitten with the brainy Rebecca Harding, but she cannot marry him because she wants to be a teacher. Feeling guilty for monopolizing Eb, Rebecca hands him over to the predatory Katherine Montgomery.
Against this backdrop of floundering romances, Rebecca, Martha, and Katherine flourish at the female academy. The young men study law-or not. Charles drops out to pursue his art. Thomas tries to flunk out. Eb transforms from a bumbling classics scholar to a rising star of the moot court.
But Eb is clumsy in love and uncomfortable with his choice of Katherine Montgomery. Will Eb compromise his abolitionist beliefs to marry the daughter of a slave-owner? Or will he find his way back to Rebecca? And why should he do that-if Rebecca cannot marry him?
The Education of Ebenezer Wells
is Book 1 of a tetralogy,
The Litchfield Chronicles
. The other books are Book 1.
The Apprenticeship of Ebenezer Wells
; Book 3.
The Trial of Ebenezer Wells
; and Book 4.
The Education of Johanna Wells
.