"Criminals, idiots, women and minors" : Victorian writing by women on women

Pardon Me; I Must Seem To You So Stupid! Why Is The Property Of The Woman Who Commits Murder, And The Property Of The Woman Who Commits Matrimony, Dealt With Alike By Your Law? So Ends The Little Allegory In Conversational Form With Which Frances Power Cobbe Opens The 1868 Essay That Gives This Collection Its Title. Cobbe Was A Widely Read Essayist Of Remarkable Lucidity And Power; Her Pieces Display Incisive Wit And Remarkable Focus As She Returns Repeatedly To The Woman Question, But It Was Typical Of The Time That When Cobbe Died She Was Described In The Wellesley Index To Victorian Periodicals As A Miscellaneous Writer. Cobbe Was Not Alone; As Much As 15 Per Cent Of The Essays In Victorian Periodicals Were Written By Women, Yet Even The Best Of These Pieces Were Allowed By The Male-dominated World Of Scholarship To Disappear From Print. This Anthology Makes Available Again Some Of The Best Victorian Writing By Women. The Second Edition Has Been Revised And Updated; Additions Include A Chronology And An Essay By Frances Power Cobbe On The Education Of Women. Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chronology -- A Note On The Text -- Anna Brownell Jameson (1794-1860) -- The Milliners -- Biographical Note -- Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) -- Female Industry -- Biographical Note -- Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904) -- Celibacy V. Marriage -- What Shall We Do With Our Old Maids? -- The Education Of Women, And How It Would Be Affected By University Examinations -- 'criminals, Idiots, Women, And Minors' -- Wife-torture In England -- Biographical Note -- Eliza Lynn Linton (1822-1898) -- The Girl Of The Period -- The Modern Revolt -- The Wild Women: As Politicians -- The Wild Women: As Social Insurgents -- Biographical Note -- Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897) -- The Condition Of Women -- The Grievances Of Women -- Biographical Note -- Helen Taylor (1831-1907) -- Women And Criticism -- Biographical Note -- Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929) -- The Emancipation Of Women -- Biographical Note -- Mona Caird (1854-1932) -- Marriage -- A Defence Of The So-called 'wild Women' -- Biographical Note. Edited By Susan Hamilton. Includes Bibliographical References. "As much as 15 per cent of the essays in Victorian periodicals were written by women, yet even the best of these pieces were allowed by the male-dominated world of scholarship to disappear from print. This anthology makes available again some of the best Victorian writing by women." "The second edition has been revised and updated; additions include a chronology and an essay by Frances Power Cobbe on the education of women."--BOOK JACKET. As much as fifteen percent of the essays in Victorian periodicals were by women, yet even the best of these pieces were allowed by the male dominated world of scholarship to sink from view. This anthololgy makes available again some of the best of Victorian writing by women. "This is an indispensable collection. It is one of the most imaginative and useful anthologies to be published in the last decade." -- Joanne Shattock, University of Leicester