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Cover of Suffer and Be Still

Suffer and Be Still Women in the Victorian Age

  • Published: 8 Oct 2013
  • DOI: 10.4324/9780203458273
  • Print ISBN: 9780415836470
  • eBook ISBN: 9780203458273

First published in 1972, this book contains a collection of ten essays that document the feminine stereotypes that women fought against, and only partially erased, a hundred years ago. In an introductory essay, Martha Vicinus describes the perfect Victorian lady, showing that the ideal was a combination of sexual innocence, conspicuous consumption and worship of the family hearth. Indeed, this model in some form was the ideal of all classes as the perfect lady’s only functions were marriage and procreation. The text offers a valuable insight into Victorian culture and society.

Contents

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    Front Matter
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    Introduction By Martha Vicinus
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    1
    The Victorian Governess: Status Incongruence in Family and Society By M. Jeanne Peterson
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    2
    From Dame to Woman: W. S. Gilbert and Theatrical Transvestism By Jane W. Stedman
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    3
    Victorian Women and Menstruation By Elaine Showalter; English Showalter
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    4
    Marriage, Redundancy or Sin: The Painter’s View of Women in the First Twenty-Five Years of Victoria’s Reign By Helene E. Roberts
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    5
    A Study of Victorian Prostitution and Venereal Disease By E. M. Sigsworth; T. J. Wyke
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    6
    Working-Class Women in Britain, 1890-1914 By Peter N. Stearns
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    7
    The Debate over Women: Ruskin vs. Mill By Kate Millett
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    8
    Stereotypes of Femininity in a Theory of Sexual Evolution By Jill Conway
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    9
    Innocent Femina Sensualis in Unconscious Conflict By Peter T. Cominos
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    10
    The Women of England in a Century of Social Change 1815-1914: A Select Bibliography By S. Barbara Kanner
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    Back Matter