The Gentleman's Daughter: Women`s Lives in Georgian England (Yale Nota Bene S.)

Eighteenth-century women have long been presented as the heroines of traditional biographies, or as the faceless victims of vast historical processes, but rarely have they been deemed worthy of rigorous historical enquiry. Based on a close examination of letters, diaries and account books, this study offers an insight into the intimate and everyday lives of genteel women and transforms our understanding of the position of women in this period Eighteenth-century women have long been presented as the heroines of traditional biographies, or as the faceless victims of vast historical processes, but rarely have they been deemed worthy of historical enquiry. The Gentleman's Daughter provides an account of the lives of genteel women - the daughters of merchants, the wives of lawyers and the sisters of gentlemen. Based on a study of the letters, diaries and account books of over 100 women from commercial, professional and gentry families, mainly in provincial England, this book provides an account of the lives of genteel women in Georgian times. It challenges the currently influential view that the period witnessed a new division of the everyday worlds of priviledged men and women into the seperate sheres of home and work. Contrary to orthodoxy, in the 18th century there was neither a loss of female freedoms, nor a novel retreat into the home. In their own writing, genteel women throughout the Georgian era singled out their social and their emotional roles: kinswoman, wife, mother, housekeeper, consumer, hostess and member of polite society. To make sense of their existence, they invoked notions of family destiny, love and duty, regularity and economy, gentility and propriety, fortitude, resignation and fate. At the same time, their social and intellectual horizons rolled majestically outward: in their tireless writing no less than in their ravenous reading, genteel women embraced a world far beyond the boundaries of their parish; while an array of new pubic arenas emerged for the entertainment of the proper and the prosperous- assembly rooms, concert series, theatre seasons, circulating librarires, day-time lectures, urban walks and pleasure gardens, as well as regular sporting fixtures and the assizes. This lively, often humorous study offers an unprecedented insight into the intimate and everyday lives of genteel women and will transform our understanding of the postion of women in this period. -- Publisher description

what Was The Life Of An Eighteenth-century British Genteel Woman Like? This Lively Book, Based On Letters, Diaries, And Account Books Of Over One Hundred Middle Class Women, Transforms Our Understanding Of The Position Of Women In Georgian England. These Women Were Not Confined In Their Homes But Enjoyed Expanding Horizons And An Array Of Emerging Public Arenas, The Author Shows.

library Journal

this Meticulously Researched Social History Should Be Welcomed By Specialists In British And European Women's History. Vickery (british Women's History, Univ. Of London) Challenges The Standard Argument That Once The Industrial Revolution Took Production Out Of The Home, Women's Lives Were Marginalized In The Domestic Sphere. Using The Letters, Diaries, And Account Books Of More Than 100 Women From The Genteel Classes, She Theorizes That Women's Activities Actually Expanded As They Involved Themselves In New Areas Of Community Life. Indeed, She Concludes That The Struggles Of The Victorian Suffragettes May Have Stemmed Not From A Sense Of Oppression But From A Desire To Expand The Gains Of Their Georgian Predecessors. Unfortunately, Vickery's Insistence On Proving Her Provocative Thesis Overwhelms The Richness Of The Descriptive Material She Presents: There Is Good Information Here On Household Management, Servants, Material Culture, Shopping And Consumption, And Female Attitudes On Courtship, Pregnancy, Motherhood, And Child Rearing. Recommended For Academic Libraries.--marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., Livingston, Nj

What was the life of an eighteenth-century British genteel woman like? This lively book, based on letters, diaries, and account books of over one hundred middle class women, transforms our understanding of the position of women in Georgian England."(Vickery) has found a gold mine in the realm of women's history: letters and pocket-book diaries kept by the daughters, wives, and mothers of gentlemen of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, allowing us to hear their voices as they experience courtship, marriage, motherhood, and widowing, and to enjoy direct accounts of their domestic and social preoccupations.... Vickery's book is full of fine details and discoveries." -- Claire Tomalin, Times Literary Supplement Based on the letters, diaries, and account books of over one hundred women from commercial, professional, and gentry families, this book transforms our understanding of the position of women in Georgian England. In their own words, they tell of their sometimes humorous, sometimes moving experiences and desires, and of their many roles, including kinswoman, wife, mother, housekeeper, consumer, hostess, and member of polite society. By the nineteenth century, family duties continued to dominate women's lives, yet, Vickery contends, the public profile of privileged women had reached unprecedented heights THE PROVINCIAL WOMEN AT THE HEART of this study hailed from families headed by lesser landed gentlemen, attornies, doctors, clerics, merchants and manufacturers.