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
Results 1-5 of 26
Page
... property laws and their reform, and others discussed the project and provided helpful ideas and encouragement: thanks especially to Patricia Ingham, Dianne Osland, and Margaret Harris. Thanks too to the series editors, Joanne Shattock ...
... property laws and their reform, and others discussed the project and provided helpful ideas and encouragement: thanks especially to Patricia Ingham, Dianne Osland, and Margaret Harris. Thanks too to the series editors, Joanne Shattock ...
Page
... reform of the property laws, 'loses all her rights as a single woman, and [whose] existence is entirely absorbed in that of her husband' (Lacey, 1987, p.25) — is also the woman who dominates the mid- Victorian novel, and this book sets ...
... reform of the property laws, 'loses all her rights as a single woman, and [whose] existence is entirely absorbed in that of her husband' (Lacey, 1987, p.25) — is also the woman who dominates the mid- Victorian novel, and this book sets ...
Page
... reform breaks out as elements of textual disruption and resistance. The ways in which reform is figured as narrative have been of considerable interest to critics in recent years,3 and this book takes up many of the concerns raised in ...
... reform breaks out as elements of textual disruption and resistance. The ways in which reform is figured as narrative have been of considerable interest to critics in recent years,3 and this book takes up many of the concerns raised in ...
Page
... property - owning heroines of Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd ( 1874 ) and The Woodlanders ( 1887 ) . The reform of the property laws affecting married women was the most fundamental of all feminist legal and social reforms in ...
... property - owning heroines of Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd ( 1874 ) and The Woodlanders ( 1887 ) . The reform of the property laws affecting married women was the most fundamental of all feminist legal and social reforms in ...
Page
Women of Property in the Victorian Novel Tim Dolin. It should be noted, however, that the campaigners for property reform fully exploited these social assumptions about woman's nature held by their opponents, partly for pragmatic reasons ...
Women of Property in the Victorian Novel Tim Dolin. It should be noted, however, that the campaigners for property reform fully exploited these social assumptions about woman's nature held by their opponents, partly for pragmatic reasons ...
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 | |
Other editions - View all
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