Author

Publication

1983 - New York University Press, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

58,500 words, Guess

Page Count

234 pages

Identifiers

  • Open LibraryOL3494532M
  • ISBN-100814753884
  • OCLC Control Number8805340
  • Library of Congress Control Number82014481
  • Goodreads4801871
and 1 more
  • LibraryThing3788530

Classifications

  • DDC306.85
  • LCCHQ613 .M56 1983

Description

The stereotypical Victorian family, although represented in innumerable daguerrotypes, is as much fantasy as reality. The Victorian family took many forms, and in this ambitious and highly original book, Steven Mintz enters five different homes in order to shed light on critical aspects of middle-class character and family during the era. By investigating the private lives of five of the most famous and influential novelists--Robert Louis Stevenson, George Eliot, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Catharine Sedgwick, and Samuel Butler--Mintz traces patterns of intersection between family dynamics and larger cultural problems of authority, legitimacy, and discipline in nineteenth-century Britain and America. More specifically, he explores the struggles to achieve a personal independence within a Victorian home and the larger historical struggle to adapt the older traditions of deference, authority, and responsibility to the emerging realities of a democratic age.

Subjects

Topics

Family -- England -- History -- 19th century -- Case studiesAuthors, English -- 19th century -- Political and social viewsAuthors, American -- 19th century -- Political and social viewsFamily -- United States -- History -- 19th century -- Case studiesMiddle class families -- England -- History -- 19th century -- Case studiesMiddle class families -- United States -- History -- 19th century -- Case studies

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