Feminine Political Novel in Victorian England

Resumen del libro

Harman (English, Wellesley College) establishes the feminine political novel as a new category in Victorian fiction, studying Victorian female protagonists who participate in the public world conventionally occupied by men to reassess the public realm as the site of noble and meaningful action for women of Victorian England. She analyzes novels by five authors in relation to each other and to developments in the emerging British women's movement, and argues that these texts constitute a countertradition in Victorian fiction, drawing on historical material related to female higher education, the law of coverture, and the suffrage movement.