The Novel: Victorian Women’s Guilty Pleasure

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The Novel: Victorian Women’s Guilty Pleasure

Introduction

Victorian single women in the middle and upper class were expected to explore charity and community service as a way to help the poor. The attitude of “ rich are busy, poor can wait” was supposed to be overturned, so that a “ poor are busy, rich can wait” attitude could alleviate the growing poverty within the lower class. Miss Crawley’s blatant disregard for the poor, in addition to her zealous behavior, would normally be shunned in Victorian society, but because of her status, her irate behavior is overlooked. Her love for French culture was unusual for a woman of her status, but French novels, along with various types of British “ sensation” novels, were a popular form of entertainment among Victorian women.

French Influence

After the French Revolution of 1789, the British followed events in France very closely. British museums have an extensive collection of French artifacts, especially literature by Alexander Dumas and Emile Zola. The French novel was under much scrutiny, due to the French novelists love of realistically portraying dramatic, grotesque events in an erotic fashion. The novels portrayal of their heroines was shunned as well. “Their contents included tales of adultery, bigamy, passion, crime and general unladylike behavior and were especially disliked for the overt presentation of sexuality in their leading female characters” (“ Women’s Reading Materials”) The French novel was easily identified by a distinct yellow cover, beautifully illustrated by Vincent Van Gogh in his painting “Parisian Novel (yellow books).” Unfortunately, the British Medical Journal “ The Lancet” thought otherwise. French novels were deemed responsible for social “ diseases” ...

... middle of paper ...

...ly of society, providing women readers with women who live outside of their own realms of society. “ The heroine of this class of novel is charming because she is undisciplined, and the victim of impulse; because she has never known restraint or has cast it aside, because in all these respects she is below the thoroughly trained and tried woman.” (Sensationalist reviews).

Further Information

http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/wellreadlinks.htm

http://www.worldreviews.com/BOOK0008_JAN2001.htm

Works Cited

Victorian Sensationalism Online http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~mactavis/vso/)

French Literature (http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Literature/DF_literature5.shtml)

Women’s Reading Material (http://www.nearwell.com/downloads/Chapter2_LC.doc) Sensationalist Review( http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~mactavis/vso/reviews/reviews.htm)

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