Women, Accounting and Narrative: Keeping Books in Eighteenth-Century England (Routledge International Studies in Business History, 8)

In the early eighteenth century, the household accountant was traditionally female. However, just as women were seen as financial accountants, they were also deeply associated with the literary and narrative accounting inherent in letters and diaries. These are examined alongside property, originality and the development of the early novel. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 List of illustrations......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 13 Diary of a not-so-mad housewife......Page 16 Jack and The Fair Jilt: the value of Aphra Behn......Page 78 Birds of a different feather: going toe-to-toe with Defoe......Page 102 He said/she said: from the picaresque to the pointedly personal......Page 138 Notes......Page 164 References......Page 205 Index......Page 217 "This book examines socio-linguistic acts of feminized accounting alongside property, originality, and the development of the early novel." "The book begins with an investigation of the reconceptualization of value that occurred between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. While women were denied inheritance of land their fortune was increasingly realized in moveable wealth: textiles, furniture, valuables and money The picaresque an older form of narrative which charts the search for real property or land is contrasted with the 'novel of personality', which charts the search for personal property or land." "This book will be essential reading for students and researchers of History, Economic History, Women's Studies and those interested in the early novel."--BOOK JACKET "Two female-narrated novels - Aphra Behn's Fair Jilt and Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders - are then examined, questioning the way in which the century's preoccupation with accounting manifested itself differently in novels of the time. The book concludes with an examination of the developing relationship between property, narrative, and 'personality' The author shows how numbers, and in particular, number in financial accounts were used to record experience and create subjectivity, highlighting the role of almanac-diaries in providing a way in which the female owner-author could document her experienced sociability, thrift, prudence and control." In the early eighteenth century, the household accountant was traditionally female. Socio-linguistic acts of feminized accounting are examined alongside property, originality, and the development of the early novel