Aristocratic Women and the Literary Nation, 1832-1867 (Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture)

Aristocratic women flourished in the Victorian literary world, their combination of class privilege and gendered exclusion generating distinctively socialized modes of participation in cultural and political activity. Their writing offers an important trope through which to consider the nature of political, private and public spheres. This book is an examination of the literary, social, and political significance of the lives and writings of aristocratic women in the mid-Victorian period. "Aristocratic Women and the Literary Nation, 7832-7867 offers a literary complement to recent historians' emphasis upon the cultural visibility and significance of the British aristocracy during the Victorian period. Aristocratic women benefited from a leisured model of socialised dilettante interaction that allowed them both to maintain and to market their high social status through their writing, but this model could prove a liability in attempts at serious social and/or intellectual engagement. Instead, these women became targets for critiques aimed at defining certain forms of individual and national identity, even as they themselves adapted to changing value schemes. Aristocratic women's writing therefore offers an important literary and cultural trope through which to consider gendered models of influence, elite identities, the nature of politics, private and public spheres, marriage, professional identities, literary hierarchies, imperial experiences, and ultimately the ongoing representation of the nation state between the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867"--Jacket. Aristocratic Women and the Literary Nation, 1832-1867 offers a literary complement to recent historians' emphasis upon the cultural visibility and significance of the British aristocracy during the Victorian period. Aristocratic women benefited from a leisured model of socialised dilettante interaction that allowed them both to maintain and to market their high social status through their writing, but this model could prove a liability in attempts at serious social and/or intellectual engagement. Instead, these women became targets for critiques aimed at defining certain forms of individual and national identity, even as they themselves adapted to changing value schemes. Aristocratic women's writing therefore offers an important literary and cultural trope through which to consider gendered models of influence, elite identities, the nature of politics, private and public spheres, marriage, professional identities, literary hierarchies, imperial experiences, and ultimately the ongoing representation of the nation state between the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867 Contents 6 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 10 Part I: Class and Authorship 30 1 Aristocratic Lives: Life-Writing, Class and Authority 32 2 Dilettantes and Dandies: Authorship and the Silver Fork Novel 55 3 Silly Novels and Lady Novelists: Inside the Literary Marketplace 72 Part II: Writing the Nation State 96 4 Wrongs Make Rebels: Polemical Voices 102 5 The Spectacle of Fiction: Self, Society and the Novel 138 6 Affairs of State: Aristocratic Women and the Politics of Influence 162 Conclusion: 1867 and Beyond 189 Notes 193 Works Cited 220 Index 240 A 240 B 241 C 242 D 243 E 243 F 244 G 244 H 244 I 244 J 244 K 244 L 245 M 245 N 246 O 247 P 247 Q 247 R 247 S 248 T 249 U 249 V 249 W 249