Florence Marryat
Once dismissed as a “purveyor of dangerous inflammatory fiction,” Florence Marryat has suffered a reputation as a trashy and formulaic novelist, unworthy of critical attention. / Critics have consistently overlooked the radicalism of her work, which confronts themes such as marital violence, single motherhood, and female sexuality. By gathering evidence from across the range of her fiction, Catherine Pope establishes Marryat as an important feminist writer – one who consistently challenged prevailing ideas of femininity in both her life and her work. / With a life neatly spanning the Victorian period, Marryat (1833-99) was well placed to experience and to observe the ways in which women’s lives were transformed during the nineteenth century. At the time of her birth, a wife’s legal identity was entirely subsumed into that of her husband; by her death in 1899, women had benefitted from momentous changes that granted them a separate identity and greater rights over their bodies and personal property. As Pope argues, Marryat contributed to the debates that heralded these changes, partly through her ability to produce sensation novels at a prodigious rate, and also by pursuing a scandalous and thoroughly un-Victorian lifestyle.
1130026780
Florence Marryat
Once dismissed as a “purveyor of dangerous inflammatory fiction,” Florence Marryat has suffered a reputation as a trashy and formulaic novelist, unworthy of critical attention. / Critics have consistently overlooked the radicalism of her work, which confronts themes such as marital violence, single motherhood, and female sexuality. By gathering evidence from across the range of her fiction, Catherine Pope establishes Marryat as an important feminist writer – one who consistently challenged prevailing ideas of femininity in both her life and her work. / With a life neatly spanning the Victorian period, Marryat (1833-99) was well placed to experience and to observe the ways in which women’s lives were transformed during the nineteenth century. At the time of her birth, a wife’s legal identity was entirely subsumed into that of her husband; by her death in 1899, women had benefitted from momentous changes that granted them a separate identity and greater rights over their bodies and personal property. As Pope argues, Marryat contributed to the debates that heralded these changes, partly through her ability to produce sensation novels at a prodigious rate, and also by pursuing a scandalous and thoroughly un-Victorian lifestyle.
34.95 In Stock
Florence Marryat

Florence Marryat

by Dr. Catherine Pope
Florence Marryat

Florence Marryat

by Dr. Catherine Pope

Paperback

$34.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    In stock. Ships in 6-10 days.
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview

Once dismissed as a “purveyor of dangerous inflammatory fiction,” Florence Marryat has suffered a reputation as a trashy and formulaic novelist, unworthy of critical attention. / Critics have consistently overlooked the radicalism of her work, which confronts themes such as marital violence, single motherhood, and female sexuality. By gathering evidence from across the range of her fiction, Catherine Pope establishes Marryat as an important feminist writer – one who consistently challenged prevailing ideas of femininity in both her life and her work. / With a life neatly spanning the Victorian period, Marryat (1833-99) was well placed to experience and to observe the ways in which women’s lives were transformed during the nineteenth century. At the time of her birth, a wife’s legal identity was entirely subsumed into that of her husband; by her death in 1899, women had benefitted from momentous changes that granted them a separate identity and greater rights over their bodies and personal property. As Pope argues, Marryat contributed to the debates that heralded these changes, partly through her ability to produce sensation novels at a prodigious rate, and also by pursuing a scandalous and thoroughly un-Victorian lifestyle.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781911454632
Publisher: Edward Everett Root
Publication date: 06/20/2020
Series: Key Popular Women Writers
Pages: 1
Product dimensions: 5.55(w) x 8.45(h) x 0.48(d)

About the Author

Catherine Pope is a writer, publisher, and workshop facilitator. In 2014 she was awarded a PhD for her thesis on feminism in Florence Marryat's fiction. Since then, Catherine has contributed chapters on Marryat to a number of edited collections, including For Better, For Worse: Marriage in Victorian Novels (Routledge, 2017) and British Women's Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, 1840-1940 (Palgrave, 2018).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction 1

"Questionable novels of the day": Women's Sensation Fiction 2

A Victorian Feminist? 6

Chapter 1 A Notable Woman 13

Chapter 2 "Entirely Different Creations": Marriage and the Sexual Double Standard 35

"Civilised Monogamy" versus "the Disruptive Vortex": The Politics of Victorian Marriage 36

"Forever Defiled": The Wronged Wife in Victorian Fiction 40

"Who made those laws?": Renegotiating the Marriage Contract 44

"I've had enough of that sort of thing": Alternatives to Traditional Marriage 49

Conclusion 56

Chapter 3 "An Entire Subversion of the Domestic Rule": Women and Property 59

The Married Women's Property Acts in Fact and Fiction 60

"That blessed Property Act": Marryat's Political Fiction 67

"I don't like to see a woman do such unfeminine things": Women in Charge 71

The Majesty of Work 74

Conclusion 78

Chapter 4 In Bluebeard's Chamber: The Conflation of Medical and Patriarchal Authority 81

"the magnetic touch of his smooth palmed hands": The Doctor in Victorian Fiction 83

"it must be difficult to breathe there": Nelly Brooke 84

"You stand in the position of her father": Petronel 87

"Poked and prodded, hypnotised, ill-but-anatomised": Mesmerism and Sexual Propriety 92

"A Bad Imitation of a Man": 'The Danger of Lady Doctors 95

Conclusion 103

Chapter 5 "Are you not a little prejudiced, dear Doctor?": The Pathologisation of Female Sexuality 105

A "gorgeous throbbing style": For Ever and Ever 107

"she is not a woman calculated to make a man happy": The Threat of the Racial 'Other' 109

"sbsurd fancies": The Masturbating Hysteric 114

"Axe you going to cut me up?" The Rise of Gynaecology 119

Petronel 121

The Strange Transfiguration of Hannah Stubbs 123

Conclusion 125

Chapter 6 "Our Mother Who Art in Heaven: The Virgin Mary and Sacred Maternity 127

"he shall rule over thee": The Biblical basis for male authority 129

The "Divine Mother" in My Own Child 133

"A Bitter Penance": Neglected Spirituality in The Dead Mans Message 144

Conclusion 149

Chapter 7 "Courageous Assertions": Spiritualism and Power 151

"Miss Marryat's Bogus Bogey"? 152

"A scene of active frottage": Queemess in the Séance Room 155

"It isn't all jam to have a medium in the house": The authoritative female voice in The Strange Transfiguration of Hannah Stubbs 160

Vested Interests: Hyperfemininity and Homosexuality in Open! Sesame! 163

Conclusion 171

Woman of the Future: Conclusion 173

Notes 179

Bibliography 181

Index 195

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews