A vivid look at the Victorian British family emphasizing interpersonal relationships, using both non-fiction and fiction sources.
Claudia Nelson is Professor of English and director of Women's Studies at Texas A&M University. In addition to coediting three anthologies of essays, she is the author of Boys Will Be Girls: The Feminine Ethic and British Children's Fiction, 1857-1917, Invisible Men: Fatherhood in Victorian Periodicals, 1850-1910 , and Little Strangers: Portrayals of Adoption in America, 1850-1929, which won the Children's Literature Association award for the best scholarly book of 2003 in the field of children's studies.
In this well-written, well-researched sociological study of the
Victorian family, Nelson links life and literature, showing
literary attempts to inculcate virtue as defined by the culture and
the individual author. Drawing in court cases and life stories of
Victorians both well known and obscure, the author argues that
Victorian literature offers a middle-class viewpoint that the
working classes are morally inferior and shows the extent to which
family, supposed to be the bedrock on which Victorian society was
built, nonetheless appeared vulnerable. Employing the extended
family, stepparenting, and adoption, Victorian writers could
present poor parenting without attacking the assumption that all
women are maternal. Not surprisingly, Nelson finds girls' and
women's training and roles different from those of men and
boys--boys raised to support families and given leisure and
freedom, girls removed from school as young as seven (if they were
needed to care for siblings) and expected to cater to the needs of
brothers throughout life. This fascinating, timely, and eye-opening
study adds to Nelson's outstanding Invisible Men: Fatherhood in
Victorian Periodicals, 1850-1910. Highly recommended. All readers;
all levels.
*Choice*
By including a wide range of experiences, Nelson offers a
well-rounded picture of Victorian family life….Nelson is a gifted
writer with a firm grasp on both historical and literary issues
and, considering the number of topics she had to cover in a brief
text, she has done an admirable job of synthesis. This book will be
helpful to introductory courses on Victorian literature or history,
particularly ones stressing gender issues.
*Journal of British Studies*
In this volume, Nelson discusses representations of family life in
Victorian fiction and non-fiction. Chapters are organized around
familial roles, such as husband and wife, mother and father, and
children and siblings, in addition to extended, foster, and
stepfamilies. She addresses both the historical facts of Victorian
domestic life and conflicting images in texts of the time, in an
attempt to understand views of family life and domestic duties and
how positive and negative ideas served the desires of the country.
Some illustrations are included.
*Reference & Research Book News*
Draws on fiction and nonfiction writings in a study contrasting how
family life was imagined and experienced during the period.
*The Chronicle of Higher Education*
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