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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Page 15
In Diana Merion , Meredith takes aspects of the dominant and dangerous women
of the sensation novel - Collins ' s earlier sensation villainess , Lydia Gwilt ( in
Armadale , 1866 ) , or Braddon ' s Lady Audley – and turns her into a feminist ...
In Diana Merion , Meredith takes aspects of the dominant and dangerous women
of the sensation novel - Collins ' s earlier sensation villainess , Lydia Gwilt ( in
Armadale , 1866 ) , or Braddon ' s Lady Audley – and turns her into a feminist ...
Page 27
Her thoughts slowly turn from her own situation , however , to the condition of
single middle - class women in general . She considers the girls of her
neighbourhood - the " " Armitages , the Birtwhistles , the Sykes ” – who “ decline
in health ...
Her thoughts slowly turn from her own situation , however , to the condition of
single middle - class women in general . She considers the girls of her
neighbourhood - the " " Armitages , the Birtwhistles , the Sykes ” – who “ decline
in health ...
Page 44
The panic ( a threat of violent male incursion ) subsides without incident , though ,
and Signor Brunoni turns out to be not a gypsy thief but an ailing Englishman .
The colourful orientalism of his imperfect speech merges with the more general ...
The panic ( a threat of violent male incursion ) subsides without incident , though ,
and Signor Brunoni turns out to be not a gypsy thief but an ailing Englishman .
The colourful orientalism of his imperfect speech merges with the more general ...
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Mistress of the House: Women of Property in the Victorian Novel Nineteenth century |
| Authors | Department of English Tim Dolin, Tim Dolin |
| Contributor | Joanne Shattock |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Ashgate, 1997 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | 4 Mar 2008 |
| ISBN | 1859281842, 9781859281840 |
| Length | 153 pages |
| Subjects | › › Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Literary Criticism / Women Authors |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |