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 1-3 of 14
Page 79
... knowledge . Little is known of Jennings ( Trodd argues that his ' real utility in the story is his experi- mental knowledge of opium ' , 1982 , p.xix , and the novel does not accord him the psychological complexity of its other ...
... knowledge . Little is known of Jennings ( Trodd argues that his ' real utility in the story is his experi- mental knowledge of opium ' , 1982 , p.xix , and the novel does not accord him the psychological complexity of its other ...
Page 91
... knowledge ' . Hardy's narratives , to adapt Ingham's general observation , ' pur- port to enact a struggle by narrators to appropriate sequences of events under explanations already , for the tellers , in place ' ( 1992 , p.13 ) , and ...
... knowledge ' . Hardy's narratives , to adapt Ingham's general observation , ' pur- port to enact a struggle by narrators to appropriate sequences of events under explanations already , for the tellers , in place ' ( 1992 , p.13 ) , and ...
Page 127
... knowledge of her betrothed ; if she make any such disposition without his knowledge , even if he be ignorant of the exist- ence of her property , the disposition will not be legal . It is usual , before marriage , in order to secure a ...
... knowledge of her betrothed ; if she make any such disposition without his knowledge , even if he be ignorant of the exist- ence of her property , the disposition will not be legal . It is usual , before marriage , in order to secure a ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
argues Barbara Bodichon becomes Betteredge Bretton Brontë Caroline Celt chapter character Chartism Collins Collins's comedy comic conflict conventional coverture Cranford Cranfordians critical Crossways culture Diana divorce domestic earnings Elizabeth Gaskell England English female feminine feminist figure Gaskell Gaskell's gender George Meredith Gillian Beer Hardy Hardy's Helstone heroine heroine's Hintock household husband ideology imagination imperial independent Irish Jane Eyre Jude Jude the Obscure Jude's ladies land 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 reform provincial question Rachel readers realism Redworth relations relationship representation represents resistance rhetoric romance scene sensation novel sexual Shirley Shirley's social social realism society space sphere story struggle suggests things tion Verinder Victorian novel Villette voice Wessex widow wife wives woman of property women Woodlanders writing