Spilling the Beans : Eating, Cooking, Reading and Writing in British Women's Fiction, 1770–1830

The study of food in literature complicates established critical positions. Both a libidinal pleasure and the ultimate commodity, food in fiction can represent sex as well as money and brings the body and the marketplace together in ways that are sometimes obvious and sometimes unsettling. Spilling __the Beans__ explores these relations in the context of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century women’s fiction, where concerns about bodily, economic and intellectual productivity and consumption power decades of novels, conduct books and popular medicine. The introduction suggests ways in which attention to food in these texts might complicate recent developments in literary theory and criticism, while the body of the book is devoted to close readings of novels and children’s stories by Frances Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria Edgeworth and Susan Ferrier. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of eighteenth and nineteenth century literature, women’s studies and material culture. The study of food in literature complicates established critical positions. Both a libidinal pleasure and the ultimate commodity, food in fiction can represent sex as well as money and brings the body and the marketplace together in ways that are sometimes obvious and sometimes unsettling. Spilling the Beans explores these relations in the context of late 18th and early 19th century women's fiction, where concerns about bodily, economic and intellectual productivity and consumption power decades of novels, conduct books and popular medicine. The introduction suggests ways in which attention to food in these texts might complicate recent developments in literary theory and criticism, while the body of the book is devoted to close readings of novels and children's stories by Frances Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria Edgeworth and Susan Ferrier. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of 18th and 19th century literature, women's studies and material culture The Study Of Food In Literature Complicates Established Critical Positions. This Title Explores The Relation In The Context Of Late 18th And Early 19th Century Women's Fiction, Where Concerns About Bodily, Economic And Intellectual Productivity And Consumption Power Decades Of Novels, Conduct Books And Popular Medicine. Eating Her Words: The Politics Of Commensality In Frances Burney's Fiction And Letters -- The Maternal Aliment: Feeding Daughters In The Works Of Mary Wollstonecraft -- The Bill Of Fare: The Politics Of Food In Maria Edgeworth's Children's Fiction -- Eating For Britain: Food, Family And National Identity In Susan Ferrier's Fiction -- Afterword. Sarah Moss. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [193]-201) And Index. Copyright 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 8 1. Eating her words: The politics of commensality inFrances Burney’s fiction and letters 51 2. The maternal aliment: Feeding daughters in the works of Mary Wollstonecraft 89 3. The bill of fare: The politics of food in Maria Edgeworth’s children’s fiction 129 4. Eating for Britain Food, family and national identity in Susan Ferrier’s fiction 167 Afterword 198 Bibliography 200 Index 209