What They Read: Mid-Nineteenth Century English Women's Magazines and the Emergence of
a Consumer Culture
Author(s): Jeffrey A. Auerbach
Source: Victorian Periodicals Review, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 121-140
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Research Society for Victorian
Periodicals
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What They Read:
Mid-Nineteenth
Century English
Women's
and the Emergence
Magazines
Culture
of a Consumer
JEFFREY A. AUERBACH
a magazine
for upper-middle
Jin February
1852, The Ladies' Cabinet,
to its readers that it
in existence for thirty years, announced
class women
in the following months present
would be changing its format, and would
a number of "improvements."
of
the editors of the
By way
explanation,
in
and an obli
the
"a
cited
of
literary world,
progress"
magazine
rapidity
see that they were "well supported." The Feb
to
to
sex"
"the
fair
gation
features on
ones, included new monthly
ruary issue, and all subsequent
a page of
a
and
of
section
household
and
the
literature
arts,
tips,
practical
next
the edi
The
month
editorial
with
letters from its readers
responses.
tors noted "the increasing circulation of our long-established
Journal of
see that in
Fashion." But if one lifted up the veil of "progress," one would
to
in
its
format
order
fact The Ladies' Cabinet
compete with two
changed
other
more
and
successful
popular
class
upper-middle
women's
maga
and The Ladies' Companion.
Belle Assembl?e
zines, The New Monthly
in
The
Cabinet
made
Ladies'
the
modifications
Moreover,
represent only
one of a series of changes that culminated
in the merger of the three mag
under
azines into what would
be, after 1852, one magazine
published
three
what
separate
names.
sold and what
It also
captures
The
consolidation
of
these
three
magazines
reveals
did not.
at
a critical
moment
the
transformation
in women's
of the 1830s
magazines
magazines
to the more practical and political magazines
of the 1860s and 1870s.1 In
the early nineteenth
tended to provide inno
century, women's magazines
cent and amusing reading material as an alternative to the daily newspa
too tainted for women who were supposed
pers, which were considered
an
to provide
husbands.2
Edenic
sanctuary for their corrupted working
common
fictional
By the 1840s, there had been a gradual change in the
to the
from the Romantic
story type from the gothic to the domestic,
from the Romantic
fiction-dominated
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122
Victorian
Periodicals
Review
30:2
Summer
1997
frequency of secular literature aimed at instruction and moral
had also increased during the 1830s, but did not become
improvement
into the 1840s. Women's
until
well
this
magazines
during
prevalent
were also devoid of what
be
considered
might generally
period
political
Realist.
The
material.3
women's
the mid-1850s
became at once both more
magazines
more
and
The
Domestic
Magazine
practical
political.
Englishwoman's
for
which
circulation
of
achieved
50,000 per month,
(1852-77),
example,
was
to promote
information
geared toward thrift, contained
designed
During
industry,
and
usefulness,
domestic
and
management,
was
crammed
with
on cooking,
fashion, dress patterns,
pets, and
weekly
gardening,
In
this magazine,
mingled with Mrs. Beeton's
hygiene.
recipes, were
"hints on how to destroy bedbugs" and "how to nurse the now prevalent
origins and
typhoid fever."4 Many of the stories made their middle-class
servants and silver-fork
designs to produce well-mannered
bourgeoisie
toward the middle
clear. The magazine was clearly oriented
painfully
woman
in the home and as consumer.
class
But The Englishwoman's
Domestic Magazine
and others like itwere also increasingly
influenced by
more
as The
such
Woman's
Journal
journals
English
politically-oriented
(1858-64), edited by Bessie Raynor Parkes and Mary Hays, which openly
notes
the
discussed
of
evils
the
late-hour
system,
schemes,
emigration
poverty
Sister's Mar
and the benefits of the Deceased Wife's
relief, prostitution,
for the extension of
riage Bill. It was during this time that the movement
women's
rights put down its roots and began to catch the public eye.5
The
three
under
magazines
consideration
here
a "middle
occupy
posi
women's
tion" in the history of English nineteenth-century
magazines,
of the earlier decades,
away from the Romantic
moving
sentimentality
to
not yet fully focused on household manners,
and only just beginning
that would
issues of female emancipation,
characteristics
emerge
promote
in
the
i86os.
This
transformation
mirrors
certain
changes
in mid-nine
teenth century English
society, revealing a gender and class in flux. But
more
is their origin. For
than the actual changes in content
important
as these which
such
did not rely on a
magazines
commercially-viable
con
patron for their support, readership and sales determined
wealthy
tent. Publishers had to attract readers (or buyers); there was indeed a bot
tom line based on the pursuit of profits and pleasing the readership. The
to
environment
forced magazines
pressures of readership in a competitive
can be argued that the
it
in
existence
after
and
thus
1852
product
adapt,
women wanted
to read, which
in turn says
represented what middle-class
something
about
their
values,
tastes,
and
desires.
The
merger
reveals
an
a formula to meet the demands
and desires of its
industry searching for
as consumers were having an increasingly
loud
voice in the
readership,
content
content of the magazines
in
read.
The
they
magazine
changes
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A. AUERBACH
JEFFREY
therefore
shed
light
on
a consumer
of
emergence
I23
that brought
the process
about
and fueled
the
society.6
is
That the readership at least in part determined what was published
not to say that authors, editors, and publishers were not also determinants
has so brilliantly pointed
of what was published. As Neil McKendrick
out,
have
entrepreneurs
a number
of
strategies
they
can
to create,
employ
and then cash in on, consumer demand.7 Rather, this article suggests that
at some point consumer demand,
in this case the interests of the female
was
became
vitally important in what
published. An analysis
readership,
of changes in content over time will reveal not just the selling of middle
of that class' emergence,
class identity at the moment
but some of the
on
women
to
advice
how
be
which
middle
class, and the
ways by
sought
nature of that advice. Charting
the elements of this merger cannot defini
answer
the
whether
these changes occurred from the
of
tively
question
and/or
that
foisted
authors
editors upon an unwilling
is,
top down,
by
or whether
were driven
and unsuspecting
female readership,
they
by
an
was
was
not
and
indication
what
and
hence
of
sales,
appealing to read
ers. Rather, it makes sense to view the changes in content in these three
over a span of several decades as the product of a symbiotic
magazines
between
and reader, between producer
author/editor
and
relationship
consumer.
Authors
and
editors
created
women
and
consumers,
women
readers in turn helped shape what
it was they consumed. This study,
therefore, examines the dynamics of the formation of a consumer society
by
exploring
the
interaction
between
taste,
production,
and
consumption.
I
The Ladies' Cabinet
of Fashion, Music, and Romance was by 1851 the
most archaic and traditional of the three magazines.
Begun in 1832, itwas
amother and
edited by Margaret
and Beatrice de Courcy,
daughter team,
at is per month. Regular features in the 1830s
in London
and published
included a serial installment, short stories, instructive articles, and poetry,
the latter of which, according to one historian, "was in the sad, detrimen
tal bittersweet
carried crude fashion plates, but it
vein."8 The magazine
also contained black and white steel engravings, which were generally of a
very high quality. The subjects of these steel engravings were usually
picturesque
romantically
scenes
of
castles,
mountains,
and
ravines.
Often
cer
these would
illustrate stories
By 1851 the magazine
a
to
to
well-educated
the upper-middle
audience, probably
tainly catered
class: many
articles included words
in foreign languages
and phrases
an entire article in French
(French, German,
Latin), and occasionally
an
educational
function, with articles on science
appeared. It also fulfilled
in the magazine.
and
the
arts.
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Victorian
124
Periodicals
Review
Summer
30:2
1997
in the Roman
Cabinet was unquestioningly
in the
mold, much more akin to what had been popular
than in the 1850s of Dickens
and Thackeray.
There were
tales of adventure, of gothic castles or unsurpassable mountains,
of hus
bands losing their lives at sea or becoming
blind and crippled, of travels
a
into dark woods
by thieves and bands of vagabonds. Hardly
prowled
an "odd"
or
on
month passed without
based
either
sudden
mis
marriage,
taken identity. One example
is the story "Affections
about a
Reward,"
or
she
woe."
his
for
weal
"noble, happy, majestic
"irrevocably
couple,"
man
move
to the
is
the
seized
"restless
and
ambition,"
Suddenly,
by
they
now
woman
must
where
she
the
of
the
of
Fashion,
city
Lady
crafty
play
the world. They flit from one event to another, scarcely interacting; he is
to a fair Italian and "personating
cold and distant, devoting his attentions
one of Byron's heroes." But whereas many would have given up, his wife
to win him from his delusion."
"resolved
She cared for him, gave him
in
and
the
he
succeeded.
"Affection may be
wanted,
end,
everything
a moment,"
for
read
the
moral
of
the
"...but the first
story,
blighted
anew."9
bids
bud
bloom
of
confidence
every
returning
zephyr
in fact permeated both the fiction and the non-fic
Moralistic messages
tion. There were articles and stories which
told women what to do and
The
fiction
in The Ladies'
tic, sentimental
days of Byron
how
to act.
papers
in
For
their
example,
since
women
hair,
a
were
cap
or
not
to appear
in
with
taught
public
hair was
Women
natural
preferred.10
on the subject of fashion. The
sent mixed messages
were,
however,
devoted almost fifteen percent of its space to
Ladies' Cabinet
consistently
articles about fashion and dress, and yet there also appeared poems such
as the following,
but Deceptive Woman:"
called "On a Fascinating
A Woman
with
a
a heart
But with
face
beaming
untrue
is valueless
beautiful,
Though
As diamonds
dew.11
formed
of
these parts of the magazine were read, and their lessons heeded,
Assuming
the fickleness
and
have been taught? Generosity,
what would women
nature
of
evil
how
the
of
fashion,
devastating
thoughts,
changeability
and
is the talisman of happiness,"
gambling ruins lives, that "contentment
the importance of not saying too much or too little, but just the right
amount.12
There were
ter. Most
-
often
also stories which
women
were
to describe women's
purported
characterized
as
innocent,
pure,
and
charac
helpless
unquestionably
ideology. The Ladies' Cabinet
fairly typical domestic
In
to
and men.
of separate spheres for women
the
notion
gave support
one story, four elderly, single women
claims
"the comparative
discussed
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JEFFREY
A. AUERBACH
I25
or rather... of the appropriate
of husband and wife to precedence,
sphere
for the reign of each, and of their separate and several provinces."13 This
and
division of the sexes, both in terms of their innate characteristics
was bolstered by the magazine's
of
and
love
of
action,
portrayals
spheres
on Matrimony"
"no
that
A
"Hints
asserted
short
titled
marriage.
piece
we assert that marriage
woman will be likely to
is
dispute with us, when
her destiny."14 In contrast, a June 1851 article extolled the advantages of
a
in much more pragmatic
for men
terms, in that it provided
marriage
to
in
him
and
loneliness
in
cheer
friends
old
home,
age, children, people
bereavement,
love,
and
caring.15
a similar dichotomy
regarding love. The author of one arti
fill up some sort of an existence
cle suggested
that "a man may possibly
a woman with
care for, and
but
without
loving;
nothing to love, cherish,
There was
minister
to,
an
is
anomaly
in
the
universe,
an
existence
without
an
for there were
is, first of all, a clear instance of moralizing,
not
in mid-century
who
did
marry.17 The author
England
in this case was trying to impress upon the reader a certain point of view,
that certain behavior was socially unacceptable,
although practiced none
more
is
But
different
role
love is depicted as play
the
theless.
important
A
in
men's
article
mentioned
that "Love is only
lives.
1851
ing
September
an episode in a man's
cannot
it
existence."
his
The author, a
life;
occupy
are
to
too
"We
hard
be
hearted
man, continued,
your mates; it is true we
can love ardently; but it is you who know how to love
constantly."18 A
same
month
lines
men's
that
included
about
how
love disappears
poem
were
when "Women's
dull/
And
her
cheek
eye grows
paleth."19 Women
on love; men were
defined by their ability to love and their dependence
defined by an absence of it.20
Unlike
The New Monthly
Belle Assembl?e
and The Ladies' Compan
object.16 This
many women
ion,
not
to mention
other
women's
magazines
such
as Charlotte
Elizabeth
or Eliza Cook's Journal, The Ladies'
Tonna's Christian Lady's Magazine
to improving
little attention
Cabinet
devoted
the status of women. The
came to delving into the world of
closest the magazine
through
politics
out 1851 was an article in June on female education, which was based on
the premise that since "the happiness of human life ismainly
dependent
of woman,
her educa
upon the character and disposition
consequently
tion... must
be ever an object of the deepest
solicitude."
The author
claimed that women who were fine scholars, mathematicians,
logicians,
to
and poets were often "incompetent
the common
duties of
perform
should not "addict themselves to
life," but that on the other hand, women
in either branch are
domestic duties." The author wrote
that "extremes
and mutually
should be somewhere
unpleasant,
incompatible." Women
in the middle,
and the best thing to do was to stress health and physical
education.21 Another
earlier contained what might
article a few months
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126
Victorian
be a veiled
about men
Periodicals
Review
Summer
30:2
1997
serve on juries: The author wrote
to having women
to
"an
manifest
their power and cruelty
having
opportunity
an
to
without
themselves
exposing
impartial tribunal, which we [women]
insist should consist of an equal number of the two sexes." These state
ments are, however,
the limit of The Ladies' Cabinet's
involve
political
ment in the early 1850s.
reference
to this qualitative analysis of content is that The Ladies'
The conclusion
as
Cabinet
of 1851 was still very much along the lines that magazines
had
been fifteen years before. The fiction was characterized
Romanticism
by
and sentimentality,
there was little practical advice about how to run a
steered clear of political
issues
house, and for the most part the magazine
such as labor legislation and the Irish Question.
A quantitative
analysis of
a similar conclusion.
the content
of The Ladies' Cabinet
provides
1851,
Throughout
on
the
average
seventy-six
of
percent
the
pages
were
or history, thirteen
to fiction, eight percent to general knowledge
to
fashion
included
four
of
percent
(which
pages
plates), two percent to
was
Most
of
the
literature"
into the
poetry.
"prescriptive
incorporated
devoted
fiction.
There
were
no
on
articles
household
or
management
the
arts,
nor
was
to letters from correspondents.
All of these features
space devoted
would be added in February of 1852, along the model of what The Ladies'
had been printing for
and The New Monthly
Belle Assembl?e
Companion
years.
II
The New Monthly
Belle Assembl?e
and The Ladies' Companion were the
standards by which The Ladies' Cabinet was judged. The New Monthly
in quarto issues
Belle Assembl?e was begun in 1832, and published weekly
which
sold for id under the title The Maids, Wives, and Widows' Penny
and Gazette of Fashion. From January until June 1833 the title
Magazine,
was shortened to The Maids, Wives and Widows' Penny Magazine,
now
Baron Wilson,
the editorship of Mrs. (Margaret Harries) Cornwell
in London
and still printed as a weekly
Little is
by Joseph Rogerson.
known about the editor, who was the wife of a wealthy
and prominent
London
solicitor. She was thirty-six when she became editor of the maga
under
zine,
the
author
of many
poems,
romantic
dramas,
comic
interludes,
nov
none of which
In
els, and biographies,
appear to have been best-sellers.22
to
she
The
Belle
the
title
Assembl?e,
though it
July 1833
changed
Weekly
raised
the
also went under the title of The Penny Belle Assembl?e,
slowly
was in 1834 that it
to
octavo.
to
It
size
2d
and
the
reduced
weekly,
price
a
under
the title of The New
became
shilling-a-month
publication
Monthly
When
Belle Assembl?e.1^
took over
Wilson
the magazine,
it printed
a mixture
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of fiction,
JEFFREY
literature
poetry,
reviews,
many
A. AUERBACH
short
(i.e.,
127
stories
half-page)
or
anec
and the latest fashions. In addition,
dotes, riddles, "public amusements,"
each issue contained
four black and white
and two color fashion plates,
more than any other
in
its
magazine
price range. Soon after she took over,
a statement of purpose, which was "to render this
Wilson
Maga
printed
zine equally suitable for the Library-Table
of the literary or the Boudoir
of the Woman
of Taste and Fashion."24 Clearly Wilson was doing some
on the
for
III she printed excerpts
thing right,
preface page to Volume
from praise accorded to her magazine
the
by
"public press." The Nor
most entertaining
it
"one
Review
called
of
the
and
rington
cheapest
publi
cations of the day," and the Berkshire Chronicle wrote
that "the high
reputation of the editress endures a better supply of mental food for the
in this class of magazines."
fair sex than we have observed
The magazine
to
content
in
include
advertisements
the
of which
1836,
began
February
suggest not only that the magazine was a commercial
enterprise, but that
itwas oriented predominantly
towards the middle or upper-middle
class.
the fifteen years leading up to 1851Wilson made several modi
During
fications in her magazine,
changes that The Ladies' Cabinet did not make.
In particular, The New Monthly
Belle Assembl?e moved
away from the
sentimental
fiction that it too had printed in its early years. A
Romantic,
typical story of the 1830s, much like what The Ladies' Cabinet printed in
the 1850s, was "The Ladder of Love," a story about a beautiful eighteen
that begins "On a sultry evening in the month
of
year-old
girl Theresa
even in death, in her lover's
July..." and ends with Theresa
"clasped,
arms."25 This kind of fiction must not have been too appealing, for in Jan
uary
1843
ers,
"some
trie
of
editor
the most
announced
popular
that
writers
she
had
of
the
just
secured
day,"
so
some
that
new
writ
the magazine
could
the highest periodicals
of the present enlightened
"compete with
And
the
by
early 1840s this meant writers of Realist, not Romantic
age."26
like Dickens, whose bestselling Sketches by Boz had been
fiction, writers
a few years earlier. When
reviewed by the magazine
in 1851 the magazine
a
section
added
titled
which
contained
"Work,"
finally
specific
tips for
a
was
the
in
sold
several
London
house,
running
magazine
being
shops
and "by all Booksellers
in Town and Country."27
(listed in the magazine)
at Home
When
The Ladies' Companion
and Abroad,
also known as
was
The Ladies' Companion
and Monthly Magazine
begun in 1849, ^
was created
Belle Assembl?e,
and
along the lines of The New Monthly
resembled
it far more than it did The Ladies' Cabinet. This in itself sug
Belle Assembl?e
gests that the formula developed
by The New Monthly
was more
successful
than that employed
The
Ladies'
Cabinet.
The
by
a
Ladies' Companion
the
under
of
well
Loudon,
Jane
began
editorship
at the time she
and successful author who was forty-two
published
began
work on The Ladies' Companion.2* One year after she began the maga
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128
Victorian
Periodicals
Review
Summer
30:2
1997
to Henry
control
she relinquished
zine, however,
Fothergill
Chorley,
well-known
of
critic
the
Athenaeum.
editor
music,
Chorley was forty
a variety of books, none
two at the time, and although he had written
seemed to have sold particularly well.29 But it was not the editors that
in late 1851, it
itwas the content, and by the time of the merger
mattered;
was
clear that the content
of The Ladies'
Companion
was
to its
appealing
readership.
Both The New
and The Ladies' Companion,
Belle Assembl?e
Monthly
in 1851 directed
toward the middle
and
Cabinet, were
the
of
for
deco
class.30
stressed,
They
importance
example,
upper-middle
a
rum that was suitable to one's station. The Ladies' Companion
printed
a
a
in
had
arrived
London.
When
doctor
about
who
young
story
just
sent a servant to inquire about his health following
female acquaintance
to Mrs. Munton,
and I am
his long journey, he replied, "My compliments
as well
was
to
to
He
"It
then
said
much
her."
himself,
well;
pretty
obliged
to say only 'pretty well,' for 'very well' would have destroyed
the interest
In another story the magazine
felt in me."31
Mrs. Munton
evidently
affirmed the significance of class boundaries:
like The Ladies'
The
are much
rich
to
belonging
barrier
of
-
there
the class
more
the middle
is between
them
brings
nothing
is not only
This
passage
aristocracy;
to separate
themselves,
below
with
immediately
with
the poor
them.
beneath
about
of
middle-class
the common
psychologically
in this
them,
the
lower
class
competition
on
attempts
as well
as
case
than
by
for
the part
that
the middle
impenetrable
and that
family
of each
them
other
apart.32
of the old
the place
of the middle
class
and
financially
asserting
those
than with
an
What
tradesman's
and affluent
respectable
want
the head of the gentry.
nothing
They
of each other
and the pride
keeps
together
it is indicative
classes
working
more
in contact
brought
class
the
under
coming
in contact
easily
the
socially,
upper
from
class
the
had
class.
area in which The New Monthly
and The
Belle Assembl?e
Another
from The Ladies' Cabinet
did not differ too much
Ladies' Companion
nature of their fiction. "There are sev
was in the moralizing,
prescriptive
the author of one story. "Take your
in this little tale," wrote
eral morals
in sugar they may not
choice among them, dear reader; being wrapped
at
if
taken
distasteful:
rate,
any
faithfully,
they must be useful."33
prove
lines such as, "In every trouble that befalls us
stories ended with
Other
readers would have read that "it is round our
there is an angel."34 Women
we rest, and in the daily, hourly inter
where
roof
the
under
very hearth,
course of life, that the heart must either be satisfied or not." Women were
and
told that they needed the support of men, who had stronger minds,
that
"the
more
and
than
their
intellects
own,
by age thirty
enlarged
need pause and ask her own nature
fatherless, brotherless,
single woman
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A. AUERBACH
JEFFREY
if it have
of
enough
Women
were
Manage
a Husband,"
also
the old
the
taught
in itself
oak
way
proper
meant
which
I29
still to stand
still,
as
to walk,
as well
herself
available
making
him,
vincing him that she could not do without
when she knew she was right, amusing him, and
which
echo
prudently.36 All of these writings,
men
not
that
could
be
Ladies' Cabinet,
suggest
alone."35
to
"How
to him, con
to him even
submitting
taking care of the house
in The
those expressed
understood
by women,
love, and that his "sphere"
that they married
for beauty and youth not
was one of work, while hers was one of nurturing.
A careful survey of the content of The New Monthly
Belle Assembl?e
in 1851, however, reveals not only how sim
and The Ladies' Companion
to each other, but how different
ilar they were
from The
they were
In both The New Monthly
and The
Cabinet?7
Belle Assembl?e
Ladies' Companion,
less than half the space in the maga
fiction occupied
in which
fiction occupied
zine, this in contrast to The Ladies' Cabinet,
over seventy-five
The love story was still the
percent of the magazine.
most prevalent story-type,
but in The New Monthly
Belle Assembl?e
and
The Ladies' Companion
they were not nearly as sentimental. They tended
Ladies'
to be about
"real-life" situations with which
the middle-class
readership
identify. There were stories about love between the classes, children
and proper courtship,
rather than
rebelling against their parents' wishes,
stories about Byronic heroes sweeping
isolated widows
off their feet, or
lost husbands returning home just in the nick of time to save their wives
could
from imminent
danger.
in terms
Next
of
of
percentage
in The New
space
was
nonfiction
(fourteen
percent
sixteen percent
in The Ladies'
Assembl?e,
Monthly
which occupied nearly twice as much space in these maga
Companion),
In the July issue of The New Monthly
zines as in The Ladies' Cabinet.
Belle Assembl?e,
for example, there were articles on the history of shoes, a
like The
biography of Ruskin, and a history of the Incas. Both magazines,
Ladies' Cabinet,
also included articles on the latest fashions and plates to
in both cases to just under ten percent of
them, amounting
accompany
Belle
space.
The
between
difference
The Ladies'
The New
Cabinet,
biggest
Belle Assembl?e,
and The Ladies' Companion was that the latter
Monthly
two were attentive to societal issues which were of
particular importance
for women.
Most
The
greatly
lies
or
comfort
and
their
the zeal
servants
For
certain
the
for The New Monthly
of
discomfort
on
depends
obligation...
argued
was
these
among
prominent
servants. Wilson
and
surely
services
our
good
there
duly
[middle-class
faith
of
should
rendered,
women's]
servants.
exist
treatment
of
domestic
Belle Assembl?e:
the
certain
Between
recognized
rewards
domestic
the head
bond
are
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life
of
very
fami
of mutual
tendered.
Victorian
130
Review
Periodicals
Summer
30:2
1997
case of two identical middle
to make her point, Wilson
posited the
in one the
class houses, each with two or three servants, and asked why
in the other
door is answered by the same good smiling face, whereas
there are always different servants, who are rude and dirty? She argued
that there was a mutual
good mistresses
affinity and attraction between
of servants had to go
and good servants. She believed
that employers
And
true
to "order and planning,"
and blind obedience"
beyond
"industry
values. Servants should be treated like humans, and allowed
middle-class
and intellectual activity. The Ladies' Companion
also
friends, affections,
took up this issue, treating it similarly in two lengthy articles in 1851.38
also provided
These magazines
Wilson's
education.
was
for
education,
"the
mistreatment
the
of
Crusade
on the issue of women's
commentary
to
solution
of
the Nineteenth
servants
domestic
is a crusade
Century...
and education will solve the bad habits of "haughti
against Ignorance,"
ness and exaction."39 One author wrote,
"It is certainly a painful thing
to be one
that we see so many women
beating against their bars wishing
or
thing
rather
other,
than what
bestow
are."
they
to as that
In another
the man."4?
of
the
author
urged
her a wider
sphere unless you
by 'equal' nothing
measuring
of the woman
should be as carefully
that the nature
but only
identical,
attended
a solution
As
"It is cruel to wish
for women:
a
more
her
upon
equal cultivation,
education
in October,
article
the
author
lashed out against the many people who thought itwas fine for a woman
to study history but not politics, when politics so quickly becomes his
a
tory. The author was for women
studying both: "It is only by the aid of
race of teachers and governesses
more
and
largely-informed
thoughtful
[i.e.,
women]
advance
women's
tunities
tunities;
than
are
can be made."41
magazines
for women
they
were
of
at
present
Both
the
any
by
articles
1850s
spoke
means
out
in favor
of
never
to
receive
the
same
did English
treatment
women's
any
opening
great
in which
the ways
in all classes, but also the limitations
the latter half of the century
advocate full equality.42
that
abundant,
reveal not only
up
oppor
of those oppor
as men.
magazines
Not
until
begin
to
Ill
It is only with
this in-depth analysis of content that the failure of The
can be understood,
for its failure is both evidence of and
Ladies' Cabinet
a shift in the content, especially
a
of
fictional,
enjoyed by the
product
can be broadly defined as a shift from Romanticism
This
reading public.
to sensibility,
to Realism,
from the gothic to the
from sentimentality
domestic. The Romantic
fiction of the first half of the nineteenth
century
contained "wildly improbable plots, exaggerated social contrasts, glamor
ized villains and recklessly brave heroes." Imprisonment
physical, psy
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JEFFREY
chological,
often
spiritual
characterized
- was
by
A. AUERBACH
HI
a central metaphor.43
a
reverence
for
nature,
This
fiction was
early
a
individualism,
revolt
the exaltation of physical passion, and the culti
against social convention,
vation of emotion and sensation for their own sakes.
into
But changes in society
division
industrialization,
urbanization,
as
in
writers turned their collective
classes
fiction,
brought about changes
attention to the condition of the people inworks such asHard Times and
was a movement
toward "life as it is," which meant dealing
Sybil. There
idealization. As Emerson
with the dirty issues of life and death without
wrote
in i860, "Let us replace sentimentalism
by realism, and dare to
uncover those
laws
be
and
terrible
which,
they seen or unseen, per
simple
vade
and
govern."44
As
the
social
range
of
fiction
to
expanded
accommo
date the changing structure of society, so too did its geographical
range: a
had to be set in an industrial town, not a
novel about factory workers
its novelty of setting in its sub
country mansion. Mary Barton announced
as Kathleen Tillotson
Life." Moreover,
has
title, "A Tale of Manchester
a
was
to
writers
which
his
neither
out,
many
setting
began
prefer
pointed
but which
torical nor contemporary,
lay in a period from twenty to sixty
such asMiddlemarch,Jane
years earlier. Novels
Eyre, Wuthering Heights,
and
and Vanity Fair exemplify
the desire to avoid the specific associations
sense
and
the
of
moral constraints of strictly contemporary
novels,
flux, of
While The Ladies' Cabinet persisted
the present as the soon-to-be-past.45
in printing stories set in the eighteenth
Belle
century, The New Monthly
to changes in the desires
and The Ladies' Companion,
Assembl?e
adapting
of
their
readership,
stories
printed
in the more
recent
past.
new
A
style
of
fiction had emerged by the 1850s, and The Ladies' Cabinet did not print it.
art
If George Lukacs is correct that the realist novel is "the predominant
form of modern bourgeois
culture,"46 then it should not be surprising that
with
the rise of the middle
class in Victorian
England, middle-class
women's magazines would begin to print realist fiction. The emergence of
realist fiction was directly related to the process by which the middle class
sought to define itself and stabilize its place in society.
the emergence of the middle
class was the appearance
Accompanying
One
of a consumer culture and a professional
feature of The New
society.
in contrast to The
and
Belle
Assembl?e
The
Ladies'
Companion,
Monthly
that is an expression of this transformation
Ladies' Cabinet,
is the impor
tance
the
former
placed
on
entertainment
and
household
management.
"Amusements
of the Month"
monthly
They
events
at
of
available
and
the
concerts,
Haymarket),
(descriptions
plays,
concerts and reviews of past concerts),
"Music" (previews of upcoming
and various sections on literature which
included book reviews, analyses
of writers'
and
from
dramas. Combined,
the arts
works,
passages
to slightly more than ten percent of the content. One
amounted
example
contained
features
called
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Victorian
132
Periodicals
Review
Summer
30:2
1997
is their coverage of the
between
the three magazines
ran one article on the event, while
The Ladies' Cabinet
Belle Assem
The Ladies' Companion
printed four and The New Monthly
bl?e five. Clearly The Ladies' Cabinet was not reaching out to middle
class society, which flocked to the Crystal Palace "to see and be seen."
Also unlike The Ladies' Cabinet,
both The New Monthly
Belle Assem
included articles on household manage
bl?e and The Ladies' Companion
and one or two short
ment, sewing patterns and ideas for knick-knacks,
In The Ladies' Companion
this section was called
stories for children.
to about five percent of the
and usually amounted
"The Work-Table,"
space in each issue. There was a great variety of articles and subjects, and
of the differences
Great
Exhibition:
women
in the home,
clearly oriented toward middle-class
care
for
and
of
the
children
the
household
taking
running
responsible
a servant or maid. The content was also ori
from
with occasional
help
as consumers: of household
ented towards these women
goods, of concert
themselves. There was,
and theater tickets, and of the magazines
then,
a
in
shift
from
women,
content,
away
merely
entertaining
quite clearly
and towards instilling in them a desire to consume. These magazines,
but as producers
of an
therefore, need to be treated not just as products,
ethic of consumption.
Another product of the transformations
taking place during the second
the content was
quarter
of
the
nineteenth
century
was
the
of
appearance
articles
with
is indicative of a growing
The use of authors' names
not
but of writing
the
of
acceptance
only of writing,
professionalization
In the early part of the century, the editors of
for the press in particular.
that was
tended to exercise rigid control over the content
magazines
in
After
editors
their
however,
many
mid-century,
journals.
printed
be counted on for their
relaxed their controls; no longer could magazines
support of a given political position. As market forces began to dominate
to make amark for
it became imperative for writers
the English economy,
to garner a following,
and they could not do this without
themselves,
in the earlier part of the century
using their names. In addition, whereas
was
not
it had
for
considered
money
writing
respectable, by mid-century
as it became more
not only respectable
And
but profitable.
become
to make a living by writing
could
for the press, more writers
acceptable
use their names with less fear of appearing declasse. By 1847, G. H. Lewes
It
"Literature has become a profession.
could write for Fraser's Magazine,
named
authors.
is a means
of
Throughout
net
appeared
subsistence
almost
all of 1851, only
with
named
authors.
as certain
as
a handful
of articles
In
contrast
bar
the
to
or
this,
the
church."47
in The Ladies'
on
average,
Cabi
almost
a
issue of The New Monthly
eighty percent of the articles in monthly
had named authors. As for The Ladies' Companion,
Belle Assembl?e
in the first six months of 1851 only half of the articles had named
whereas
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A. AUERBACH
JEFFREY
?33
authors, in the second half of the year over seventy percent of the articles,
on average, in a monthly
issue had named authors. The inclusion of by
The Ladies' Companion
lines is an indication of modernization:
adapted
to the standard set by The New Monthly
The Ladies'
Belle Assembl?e;
Cabinet did not.
On the whole,
the men and women who wrote for The New Monthly
were comfortably middle
and The Ladies' Companion
Belle Assembl?e
class,
and
wealthy,
appeared
cent
are
of which
were
There
well-educated.
as by-lines
in the two magazines
Women
traceable.48
names
sixty-two
which
1851, forty-eight
during
men
outnumbered
per
one.
to
three
or businessmen,
of landowners, merchants,
and
the men at least tended to have received good educations,
often at a
no means all, of the women, were edu
boarding school. Most,
though by
cated more locally, frequently by parents or friends. Most of the writers
were socially involved, and the women
at least tended to be activists on
were
Most
women's
than
The
issues.
average
for women,
forty-five
men
the children
were
to
able
women,
or
thirty-eight
of
in
point
to use
tended
the men
in
authors
their
was
1851
which
for men,
a certain
to
get
that
age
forty-three:
suggests
at
careers
the women's
an
either
that
earlier
age
as a
magazines
the women
tended to write
stepping stone to some other job, whereas
the women's magazines
for a longer period of time, and consequently
an older age.
do not include information
Although many biographers
marital
status,
more
least ten percent
women
who
than
were
a
married,
the women
half
for a third
not;
had
quarter
been
writers
there
were
at
widowed
Of
once
least
at
and
married,
is no mention.
for
at
on
those
the
by
in 1851. Very few of the authors were born in London,
time they wrote
but most
lived there for substantial portions
of their professional
lives.
were
Most
quite
to how-to
poetry
popular,
manuals,
and
and
a
wrote
often
for
variety
a number
of works,
from
ranging
of different
magazines.
These changes within
the writing
industry paralleled changes through
to Harold Perkin, saw the rise of a
out British society, which,
according
ideal"
the
last
and,
quarter of the nineteenth
century,
by
"professional
had indeed become a professional
society.49 One of the basic components
of professionalization
is an ideology about how the work is to be done.50
In the case of the fictional writer, by the 1850s this ideology was Realism,
and thus it should come as no surprise that the writers of the realist fic
Belle Assembl?e
and The Ladies' Companion
tion, in The New Monthly
use their names,
as
and thus label themselves
would
professionals,
whereas
the writers of Romantic
fiction for The Ladies' Cabinet, not yet
avoid the practice.51
professionals, would
It should now be clear why The Ladies' Cabinet did not survive. It was
not
a
fiction
"professional,"
by unknown
consumer-oriented
authors who
magazine.
could
not
develop
It
printed
out-of-date
a following,
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and it
Victorian
134
Periodicals
Review
Summer
30:2
1997
did not
information
supply the dose of practical
regarding women's
life that the female readership so clearly demanded. And so, in
learned that their mag
1851 the readers of The Ladies' Cabinet
February
azine had fallen "under the control of a newly appointed
of
editorship
would
established
which
"artists
of
known
talent."
reputation"
provide
The new editors announced
that future issues would
contain the kinds of
New
Belle
and
articles The
The Ladies' Companion
Assembl?e
Monthly
domestic
had been printing for years.52 By March
the circulation of the magazine
had already increased.53 This obvious
response to consumer demand sug
at
that
gests
least
it was
in part,
was
who
determined what
hold tips were not merely
ers;
the
readers
wanted
the
not
readers,
the
editors
and
writers,
That
is, realist fiction and house
published.
the
and writers on the read
editors
imposed by
them.
some magazines
In the competitive world of mass markets,
adapted and
others did not, and it is the failure of those that did not adapt that enables
to make
historians
assertions
about
what
it was
women
that middle-class
line for all three of these magazines was
did and did not read. The bottom
to print columns that did not sell. And so
sales; they would not continue
it becomes clear that what the readership wanted was the kind of material
Belle Assembl?e
and The Ladies' Companion,
found in The New Monthly
not that contained
in The Ladies' Cabinet. That magazines
printing one
kind of material
sold better than a magazine
another
kind indi
printing
cates
that
the
was
former
more
women
that
popular,
to
wanted
it
read
more.
The readership had spoken.
This case study, then, has important
women's
between
history,
the two.54
the
of
emergence
There
has
been
ramifications
a consumer
an
for the study
culture,
assumption,
and
the
among
prevalent
of
linkage
liter
that literary texts not only
ary scholars but also among many historians,
in the interest of exercising
affected how women
lived, but were written
power over women.55 The problem with this approach is that it is difficult,
to demonstrate
if not impossible,
Several his
causality and intentionality.
torians have demonstrated
that there is frequently no connection
between
read and the way they live their lives.56 Perhaps most impor
what women
tantly,
this
line
of
argument
deprives
women,
as consumers,
The analysis of the merger offered here restores
some of the agency that has been denied them
to
doubt that editors and authors attempted
readers. This paper does not argue that tastes
to create a market
the attempts by merchants
demonstrates
between
that
authors,
it is much
editors,
more
publishers,
of
to mid-Victorian
agency.
women
by historians. There is no
shape the values of their
are totally
of
independent
for their goods. Rather,
it
accurate to think of the dynamic
and readers as a complex symbiotic
relationship.
Yale University
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A. AUERBACH
JEFFREY
5
13
ENDNOTES
i.
On
women's
English
in general
magazines
see
in the period,
Irene Dancyger,
A World of Women: An Illustrated History ofWomen's Magazines (Dublin:
Gill andMacmillan, 1978); Cynthia L.White, Women's Magazines 1693-1968
(London: Michael Joseph, 1970);Alison Adburgham, Women in Print (Lon
don: George Allen and Unwin, 1972); Richard D. Altick, The English Com
mon Reader (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957).
2.
The
tax on newspapers
stamp
a disincentive
provided
so-called
and public
consumer
and
news,
foreign
politics,
to focus on dress,
tended
is not
271; White,
This
pers
literary
pp. 38-40.
or "mainstream"
antithesis
and
of,
1847,
antidote
magazines
to avoid
that
only
periodicals,
the
Press,
1987).
Louis
James,
4.
Dancyger,
Fiction
Press,
versity
1963),
pp.
Woman's
the Working
p.
112; Dancyger,
57, 67-8; White,
pp.
5. White,
for
E. M.
46-7;
Journal,"
"A New
Departure
Nestor,
State
of men.
See The
Ladies'
Oxford
(Oxford:
6.
See,
More
93-106.
among
generally,
Feminine
University
inWomen's
Forum
mid-nineteenth
century
of Chicago
Uni
Oxford
(London:
Press,
that
English
The
A.
Pauline
71-5;
19 (1968):
Publishing:
Woman's
English
Caine,
Victorian
Feminists
1992).
for
argue
Britain,
in The
Image
Victorian Periodicals Review XV (Fall
see Barbara
generally,
books
David
51-5.
"The
University
many
Cabi
see Leonore
1830-1850
pp.
Journal and The Victoria Magazine,"
1982):
evidence
p. 46.
Behnken,
Ball
Man,
they
of female purity as the
off and Catherine Hall, Family Fortunes (Chicago: The University
3.
tax,
is abundant
there
and theworship
for,
also
domestic
See Adburgham,
p.
did not read newspa
that women
imply
the corruption
p. 18. More
156; Dancyger,
138,
pp.
to cover
and manners.
goods,
the news
covered
In order
affairs.
to
of the glorification of womanhood
net,
which
and periodicals
women's
for
if not
the presence
long
a consumer
of
before,
Joan
in
society
Economic
Thirsk,
Policy and Projects: The Development of a Consumer Society in Early Modern
England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978);Neil McKendrick, John
Brewer, and J.H. Plumb, The Birth of a Consumer Society (London: Europa,
1982);Thomas Richards, The Commodity Culture of Victorian England
(Stanford:
Stanford
"Changes
"Changes
ibid.,
tics,
and
Erika
1990);
1660-1760
and Anglo-American
the World
in English
177-205;
and
Culture,
in English
Consumption
Press,
University
and Material
Behavior
of Goods,
the Construction
of
(London:
"'The Halls
the Department
206-27;
Routledge,
1988)
from
to
Carole
1550
and
1800,"
Shammas,
from
consumption
of Temptation':
Store
Consumer
Weatherill,
Consumption
pp.
and Anglo-American
Rappaport,
Lorna
in Late
1550-1800,"
Gender,
Victorian
Poli
Lon
don," Journal of British Studies 35 (1996): 58-83.
7.
Neil
McKendrick,
"Introduction:
the birth
of a consumer
society:
This content downloaded from 130.166.3.5 on Thu, 5 Feb 2015 16:19:37 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
the com
Victorian
136
of eighteenth-century
1-8; "The consumer
mercialization
Plumb,
pp.
ibid.,
"The
9-33;
pp.
Review
Periodicals
the commercialization
and
Wedgwood
of
of
1997
in McKendrick,
England,"
revolution
commercialization
Summer
30:2
eighteenth-century
fashion,"
ibid.,
of the
potteries,"
and
Brewer,
England,"
35-99;
pp.
ibid.,
"Josiah
On
100-45.
pp.
the other hand, Jan de Vries, in The Dutch Rural Economy in the Golden Age
Haven:
(New
Yale
theoretical
in
underpinning
8.
that
ion of
(271,
Ibid.,
11.
Ibid., May
12.
Ibid., October
13.
Ibid.,
15.
Ibid.,
16.
Ibid., March
17.
In
June
18. The
19.
in
p.
1852,
by
of
April
over
p.
pp.
86-9.
1851,
pp.
107; June
73,
1851,
p. 289;
126.
126.
one
in 1851,
age
out
of
forty-five;
see Martha
for
Women,
Single
1851,
September
was
these
subjects
1851,
the author
thirty-five
is not
the author
the rarer
"must
women
eight
Vicinus,
could
expect
not
to
Women:
Independent
1850-1920
(London:
Press,
Virago
155.
p.
only
of her
the magazine
wrote
that
to
be held
a vague
and
sex"
(153).
some
although
belong
Maid
These
In another
consistent.
wholly
say
that unmarried
to the
hopeless
a mistaken
sisterhood...
but
sweeping,
"an Old
continued,
attributes
is a being
different
having
opinions
generality."
and
the better
are at least
in
were written
a
these magazines
by
an editorial
often unscreened
and
free
of different
board,
authors,
by
a
seem to indicate
But more
whatever
revealing,
they
they wished.
current
in flux, unsure what
its morality
unclear
about
what
should
be,
attributable
society
opin
deprecating
"not
pro
elegantly
and
publication"
292-3.
pp.
and Wales
however,
to write
quite
157.
Cabinet,
neither
number
an economy.
a
169.
p.
Indeed,
part
p.
1852,
Ladies'
piece
women
this,
1851,
Community
p. 26.
Ibid.,
20. On
pp.
and
1985),
on
the whole
prudish
p. 208; August
130-5.
1851,
England
have married
Work
General
Keynes'
p. 47.
1851,
1851,
April
Ibid., March
its
has
position
p. 229.
1851,
14.
on
1851,
February
1851,
January
March
This
John Meynard
can have
had
it "a
calling
Cabinet,
10.
in demand
changes
versa.
vice
297).
Ladies'
The
than
demand
p. 266; Adburgham
the magazine,
duced"
9.
other
that
suggests
than
Interest and Money, which details the devastating
a lack of consumer
Adburgham,
1974),
rather
production,
in none
Theory of Employment,
effects
Press,
University
in changes
resulted
to the fact
that
articles
for
practice.
21.
22.
The
Ladies'
Henry
Cabinet,
Fothergill
June
Chorley,
1851,
editor
pp.
279-80.
of The
Ladies'
Companion,
called her "a large lady, but a small authoress. She displayed
m?nagerie]
rather
protuberantly,
below
the waist
of her
black
unflatteringly
[at a literary
dress,
This content downloaded from 130.166.3.5 on Thu, 5 Feb 2015 16:19:37 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
a
tawdry
half
medal,
cial Delia
of a saucer,
size
the
Cruscan
literary
Letters,
which
had
been
37
vol.
some
her by
awarded
See his Autobiography,
I (London:
Richard
society."
G. Hewlett,
ed. Henry
I
A. AUERBACH
JEFFREY
provin
and
Memoirs,
PP
1873),
Bentley,
239-40.
23.
The Waterloo
of Victorian
Directory
Periodicals,
Phase
1824-1900,
I, ed.
Michael Wolff, John S.North, and Dorothy Deering (Waterloo, Ontario:
Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1976), p. 659.White in her book was incor
rect
the
about
data
publication
in 1847" (42).
"launched
of
the magazine:
She
asserted
itwas
that
24. The New Monthly Belle Assembl?e, preface page to Vol. II (January-June
1835).
25.
Ibid.,
26.
Ibid,
preface
27.
Ibid.,
June
p. 93.
1836,
February
to Vol.
1851,
XVIII
p.
1843).
(January-June
384.
28. She had previously edited The Ladies' Magazine of Gardening (1842), and
was the author of nineteen books, including The Mummy, a Tale of the
interest
she shared
with
books
gardening
and The Ladies'
Country
editions,
Gardeners
(Skeffinton,
1951),
tions,
Frederic
262);
p.
1983],
and Worth,
1917; Oxford
London
29. DNB;
of National
University
(London:
Boase,
Oriel
Press,
Press,
p. 614; Chorley,
39; Anne
p.
II: 499;
1970),
from
31. The
32.
Ibid.,
Belle
Assembl?e
and printed
Ladies'
31 May
were
articles
Companion,
1851,
p.
I24~6>
(Truro:
Biography
and
Stephens
Sidney
Lee,
148; Joan Gloag,
Mr.
Loudon's
l7%-9'>li:
6
and The New
publications
and used
words
languages.
1851,
p. 2.
195.
33. The New Monthly Belle Assembl?e, May
1851, p. 337.
1851, p. 19.
January
35. Ibid., p. 3; 1August
1-3.
1851, pp.
1
1March
1851, p. 97;
1851, pp. 89-90.
36. Ibid.,
September
were
minor
There
differences
between
the two magazines.
37.
only
a
feature
called
Hints
"Household
Companion
monthly
printed
a
Eliza
of
the
author
with
short
Acton,
cook-book,
by
popular
34.
The
61, 6y.
shilling-a-month
in foreign
1
February
et al., eds.,
(London: Geoffrey Cumberlege,
XII:
pp.
I: 69-95,
great
Nineteenth
[London: Europa Publica
30. Like The Ladies' Cabinet, both The Ladies' Companion
Monthly
and
copies
to
or, How
Beeton's
Some
Crawford,
English
Leslie
Biography
1949-50),
Mrs.
Taylor,
ed., Modern
Boase,
1892-1908),
eds., The Dictionary
what
of British Women
Europa Biographical Dictionary
Netherton
Companion;
successful
(1845) "did for the outdoor activities of the
mistress
of the Victorian
household
inexperienced
book
See
did for her indoor
economy."
Geoffrey
Century
an
gardening,
if only
partially
sold over 20,000
of her
Enjoy a Country Life Rationally
on
of books
a well-known
her husband,
One
gardener.
landscape
went
nine
through
a number
and
(1827),
Century
Twenty-Second
Ibid.,
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The
Ladies'
and Recipes"
on
pieces
Victorian
138
and
"Truffles
addition
their
this
of
Review
Periodicals
use,"
and
puddings,
(a new
gingerettes
accounts
section
cooking
Summer
30:2
for
the higher
1997
The
beverage).
of articles
proportion
on domestic matters
in The Ladies' Companion than in The New Monthly
(fifteen percent in The Ladies' Companion, five percent in
The New Monthly Belle Assembl?e). The Ladies' Companion also included a
Belle Assembl?e
monthly
on when
section
aesthetic
issues
to
on
plant
as well.
included
panion
which
advice,
gardening
certain
The
only other difference
more
letters from
significantly
not
information
only
to the
but on more
garden,
was
that The Ladies'
Com
consisted
to tend
and how
flowers
than The New
correspondents
Monthly Belle Assembl?e did. On thewhole, though, and certainly when
compared with the content of The Ladies' Cabinet, The New Monthly Belle
and The
Assembl?e
Ladies'
contained
Companion
same mate
the
essentially
rial.
38. The New Monthly
the
treatment
ary
1851,
their
40.
The
Belle
Monthly
Assembl?e,
41.
Ibid.,
42.
Elaine
Showalter,
Study
in Victorian
versity
Press,
(London:
97-113,
millan,
p. 259.
Andr?
Deutsch,
focuses
the characters
activities
and
then,
sity Press,
47.
1956),
Lukacs,
p. 2.
[G. H.
Lewes],
France,"
Fraser's
pp.
"The
story
arranging
the piano
playing
A Case
20.
(1975):
(London:
Novel
esp.
in England
(London:
the author
books,
( 1November
trans.
Realism,
and
home
in the
story
example
maids,
for bed."
The
Bone
Edith
the
of
Ladies'
urban
author
life,
took
detail
(1 February
to describe
the
point
to read
pausing
18 51, p.
pp.
Mac
in The
events:
in minute
a
made
of Literary
p. 60; James,
Confessions"
people
children
Uni
Oxford
Dancyger,
11. An
6,
pp.
York:
A Dictionary
a selection
char
every
178).
of the Eighteen Forties (Oxford: Oxford Univer
88-99,
Condition
Magazine
601-2;
pp.
everyday
their
to describe
45. Kathleen Tillotson, Novels
46.
on
pains
acter'
2
(New
in European
1950),
great
now
ed.
is "Mr. Harrison's
calling
In another
dusting,
John
Studies
Lukacs,
of mothers
2-6).
of Sentiment:
Studies
A. Cuddin,
Realist
The
voices
pp.
178-80).
76-9.
the Tactics
rev.
1977),
"the
1851,
and
Feminist
Keywords,
loan Williams,
which
Companion,
Craik
See also
Hillway
Publishing,
use of realist
fiction
increased
pp.
of
137.
p.
Authorship,"
Williams,
1974); George
(London:
1851,
treatment
their
5, 10.
pp.
1983),
167-8;
Companion
1 Febru
Companion,
was
in
continued
English Fiction of the Victorian Period, 1830-1890
in Raymond
Terms
1851,
Mulock
Female
1985),
44. Quoted
Ladies'
122-4.
pp.
"Dinah
43. Michael Wheeler,
Longman,
Ladies'
February
1
April
Ladies'
Companion,
1October
1851,
The
two housewives
about
and
piece
servants
November
(1
1851, pp.
domestic
respective
in The
debate
in a fictional
39. The New
see also
servants,
The
41-2.
pp.
November
1851, pp. 76-9; on the issue of
Belle Assembl?e, February
of domestic
I07
of Authors
35 (March
1847):
in
England,
Germany,
285.
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
and
48.
For
an author's
many
authors
name
in one
appear
to be considered
wrote
of
either
the
following
Saur,
or her
his
or
anonymously
sources:
39
(at a time when
real name
Boase;
DNB;
Hale;
to
it had
pseudonymously),
British
Crawford;
edition, ed. Paul Sieveking (London: K.
Bibliographical Archive, Microfiche
G.
I
A. AUERBACH
JEFFREY
1984).
49. Harold Perkin, The Origins ofModern English Society (London: Ark Paper
backs, 1969), pp. 252-70 and The Rise of Professional Society (London: Rout
1990).
ledge,
50. The
on
literature
ton,
professionalization
The
"Professions,"
Paul,
Kegan
but
Encyclopedia
(Boston:
Science
Social
p. 650; Terrence
1985),
see
is voluminous,
Johnson,
and
Routledge
Power
and
Professions
I.
Wadding
esp.
(London:
1972); Jeffrey L. Berlant, Profession and Monopoly (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1975);Magali S. Larsen, The Rise of Profession
alism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977); Gaye Tuchman and
Macmillan,
E. Fortin,
Nina
and Nancy
berg
American
Critical
Fox
Wrightman
52. The
of
Novelists,
and T.
Cabinet,
Rhetoric
the Gentle
Lears
J. Jackson
magazines,
History
Reader,
to the editor. There
according
or the other
two
Ladies'
Cabinet
magazines
Lorna Weatherill,
"A Possession
54. Adburgham;
cashire
World
131-56;
in England,
a
in American
(43).
1660-1740,"
under
of One's
here.
Women
Own:
of British
Journal
for either
figures
consideration
and
Studies
25
Amanda
"Women
A Lan
and the World
of Goods:
Vickery,
and Her
and the
Possessions,
1751-81,"
Consumption
Consumer
of Goods,
1850
of
1983), made
Pantheon,
for women,
c.
Culture
ed. Richard
circulation
The
(1986):
The
1880-1980,
York:
pp. 49-50.
are no known
February
Behavior
Mass-Market
1880-1920,"
History,
(New
for
Agenda
(1982).
1852,
53. This
Consumer
A Research
of Consumption:
especially
to
England
equivalent
and
Publishers,
Press, 1989); Joan Jacobs Brum
in the Professions:
in American
Essays
argument
regarding
1880, a period
roughly
Ladies'
Victorian
in American
in "The
the Demise
and
Consumption:
after
Reviews
P. Wilson,
Magazines
Out:
"Women
Tomes,
Historians,"
51. Christopher
similar
Women
Edging
(New Haven: Yale University
Social Change
pp.
274-301;
Richards,
esp.
pp.
100-4,
Rosalind
205-48;
H.
Williams, Dream Worlds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982).
55. Sally Mitchell, "Sentiment and Suffering: Women's Recreational Reading in
the
Victorian
i86os,"
21
Studies
(1977):
Domestic Fiction: A Political History
versity
Press,
1987),
esp. p.
5; Kate
29-45;
Nancy
Flint,
Desire
Armstrong,
and
(New York: Oxford Uni
of theNovel
The Woman
Reader
183/-1914
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), p. 31, though it should be noted that this is
not
Flint's
argument.
See
also
Eugenia
odicals 1832-186: A Bibliography
1860s,"
Nestor,
Victorian
pp.
93-106;
Periodicals
Women
10 (November
Newsletter
Dancyger,
A Biography of England
Palmegiano,
and
and "Feminist Propaganda
pp.
1841-1851
76-7;
John W.
Dodds,
1970),
pp.
The Age
(New York: Rinehart,
British
Peri
in the 1850s and
5-8;
of Paradox:
1952), 116;Dulcie
This content downloaded from 130.166.3.5 on Thu, 5 Feb 2015 16:19:37 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Victorian
140
M.
Over
Ashdown,
White,
56. Flint,
the Teacups
(London:
30:2
Summer
Cornmarket
1997
Press,
1972),
p.
i;
p. 49.
p.
"Advice
188; Jay Mechling,
Journal of Social History
What
Review
Periodicals
Was:
ical Review
Women's
to Historians
9 (1975): 44; Carl Degler,
Sexuality
in the Nineteenth
on Advice
to Mothers,"
"What Ought
Century,"
to Be and
American
J9 (1974): 1478.
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Histor