Mistress of the House: Women of Property in the Victorian NovelThis exploration of gender and property ownership in eight important novels argues that property is a decisive undercurrent in narrative structures and modes, as well as an important gender signature in society and culture. Tim Dolin suggests that the formal development of nineteenth-century domestic fiction can only be understood in the context of changes in the theory and laws of property: indeed femininity and its representation cannot be considered separately from property relations and their reform. He presents original readings of novels in which a woman owns, acquires or loses property, focusing on exchanges between patriarchal cultural authority, the 'woman question' and narrative form, and on the place of domestic fiction in a culture in which property relations and gender relations are subject to radical review. Each chapter revolves around a representative text, but refers substantially to other material, both other novels and contemporary social, legal, political and feminist commentary. |
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... moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic ...
... moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic ...
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... moral agent ' , removed from ' the actual collision of political contests , and screened from the passions which such engender ' ( Helsinger et al . , 1983a , p . 12 ) . In response , Marion Reid ( in A Plea for Woman , 1843 ) disputed ...
... moral agent ' , removed from ' the actual collision of political contests , and screened from the passions which such engender ' ( Helsinger et al . , 1983a , p . 12 ) . In response , Marion Reid ( in A Plea for Woman , 1843 ) disputed ...
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... moral centrality than the public and the impersonal' (p.54), the public sphere 'is transformed by the operation of reason into ordered and calculable self-interest. The private sphere ... excludes reason, except insofar as this is ...
... moral centrality than the public and the impersonal' (p.54), the public sphere 'is transformed by the operation of reason into ordered and calculable self-interest. The private sphere ... excludes reason, except insofar as this is ...
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... conflicts created by property and inheritance laws. (1992, p.46) Diana represents everything that Victorian critics of the 1860s had deplored in the sensation heroine: There is nothing more violently opposed to our moral sense.
... conflicts created by property and inheritance laws. (1992, p.46) Diana represents everything that Victorian critics of the 1860s had deplored in the sensation heroine: There is nothing more violently opposed to our moral sense.
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... moral sense , in all the contradictions to custom which they present to us , than the utter unrestraint in which the heroines of this order are allowed to expatiate and develop their impulsive , stormy , passionate characters . We ...
... moral sense , in all the contradictions to custom which they present to us , than the utter unrestraint in which the heroines of this order are allowed to expatiate and develop their impulsive , stormy , passionate characters . We ...
Contents
Shirley | |
Cranford and its belongings | |
Villette | |
The Moonstone | |
Hardys uncovered women | |
Diana of the Crossways | |
A brief summary of the laws | |
The Caroline Norton affair | |
Index | |
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Common terms and phrases
argues Barbara Bodichon becomes Betteredge Bretton Brontë Caroline Celt chapter character Charlotte Brontë Collins comedy comic conflict conventional coverture Cranford Cranfordians critical Crossways culture debates Diana divorce domestic earnings England English female feminine feminist figure Gaskell Gaskell's gender Gillian Beer Hardy Hardy's Helsinger Helstone heroine heroine's Hintock household husband ideology imagination independent Irish Jane Eyre Jude Jude the Obscure Jude's ladies landed landscape language live London Lucy Lucy's marriage married women's property Mary Meredith middle-class mistress Moonstone moral narrative narrator nature passion plot political possession property laws property reform provincial question Rachel readers realism Redworth relations relationship representation represents resistance rhetoric romance scene sensation novel sensationalism sexual Shirley Shirley's social social realism society space sphere story struggle suggests things Verinder Victorian fiction Victorian novel Villette voice Wessex widow wife wives woman of property women Woodlanders writing