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. |
From inside the book
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... with their underlying class-based assumptions about a woman's nature and capacities —her 'capabilities and disabilities', as Caroline Cornwallis put it in 1857 (Bell and Offen, 1983, p.310). These texts do not for the most part take direct.
... with their underlying class-based assumptions about a woman's nature and capacities —her 'capabilities and disabilities', as Caroline Cornwallis put it in 1857 (Bell and Offen, 1983, p.310). These texts do not for the most part take direct.
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... in conduct books, literature, and the visual arts, that the customary inferiority of women seemed like a universal and natural law, of which the property legislation was only an inevitable extension. As Mill expressed.
... in conduct books, literature, and the visual arts, that the customary inferiority of women seemed like a universal and natural law, of which the property legislation was only an inevitable extension. As Mill expressed.
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... nature, to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections. And by their affections are meant the only ones they are allowed to have — those to the men with whom children who ...
... nature, to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections. And by their affections are meant the only ones they are allowed to have — those to the men with whom children who ...
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... nature held by their opponents, partly for pragmatic reasons (radical claims to equality would inevitably alienate them) and partly because of their own class backgrounds. They tended to see marriage and public life as independent roles ...
... nature held by their opponents, partly for pragmatic reasons (radical claims to equality would inevitably alienate them) and partly because of their own class backgrounds. They tended to see marriage and public life as independent roles ...
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... natural sphere is ' ( pp.17-18 ) . Ann Lamb's essay , ' Can Woman Regenerate Society ? ' ( 1844 ) , also challenged ... nature , sexuality , social role , power , and influence , and more importantly to link the dominant sexual ideology ...
... natural sphere is ' ( pp.17-18 ) . Ann Lamb's essay , ' Can Woman Regenerate Society ? ' ( 1844 ) , also challenged ... nature , sexuality , social role , power , and influence , and more importantly to link the dominant sexual ideology ...
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