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Marriage and Motherhood


‘The close of the nineteenth century marks an epoch of social revolutions’, the Humanitarian stated in 1896, awarding the New Woman pride of place in its list of latter-day developments: she was ‘the first in importance, the most abounding in potentialities and in common interest’. At a time of social, cultural and political upheaval, the New Woman epitomized the anxieties but also the hopes of the fin de siècle. Her sexual anarchy accentuated contemporary fears about the shifting categories of gender and sexuality, while her growing cultural resonance enhanced concerns about the feminization of literature and the impending death of virile Englishness. Her political demands reflected the crisis of the old order riven by class conflict at home and colonial unrest abroad, yet with her call for the restitution of moral standards and her celebration of women’s nurturing qualities she saw herself as an agent of the ‘regeneration and purification’ of the nation. A vibrant metaphor of transition, the New Woman became a symbol both of the dissolution of society, and of that society’s moral renovation.

Volume Contents

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    Front Matter
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    Volume One Introduction By Ann Heilmann
  • The Morality of Marriage: And other Essays on the Status and Destiny of Woman By Mona Caird
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      Introduction By Mona Caird
    • The Emancipation of the Family By Mona Caird
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        I
        Early History of the Family By Mona Caird
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        II
        The Patria Potestas By Mona Caird
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        III
        The End of the Patriarchal System By Mona Caird
    • Marriage By Mona Caird
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        I
        The Pioneer of Civilisation By Mona Caird
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        II
        Marriage before and after the Reformation By Mona Caird
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        III
        The Lot of Woman under the Rule of Man By Mona Caird
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        IV
        A Moral Renaissance By Mona Caird
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      The Future of the Home By Mona Caird
    • The Morality of Marriage By Mona Caird
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        I
        Motherhood under Conditions of Dependence By Mona Caird
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        II
        Married Life, Present and Future By Mona Caird
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        III
        Children of the Future By Mona Caird
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      A Defence of the “Wild Women” By Mona Caird
    • Phases of Human Development By Mona Caird
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        I
        Suppression of Variant Types By Mona Caird
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        II
        Sons of Bondswomen By Mona Caird
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        III
        The Tyranny of Instinct By Mona Caird
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        IV
        The Human Element in Man By Mona Caird
  • Is Marriage a Failure? By Mona Caird
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      Preface By Harry Quilter
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      What Mrs. Caird Thinks By Mona Caird
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      Is Marriage a Failure?: The Answer, Yes! By Mona Caird
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      The Answer, No!: The Case for the Defence By Mona Caird
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      Marriages Abroad By Mona Caird
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      Amici Curiæ By Mona Caird
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      The Philosophy of Marriage By Mona Caird
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      Causes of Success and Failure By Mona Caird
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      The Remedies Proposed By Mona Caird
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      Appendix: A Survey of The Laws Of Marriage and Divorce By Mona Caird
  • The Response by Contemporary Critics and Journalists
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      St Paul and the Woman Movement
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      On Marriage: A Criticism Fortnightly Review, vol. 53 (1890) By Clementina Black
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      The Wild Women as Politicians Nineteenth Century, vol. 30 (1891) By Eliza Lynn Linton
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      The Wild Women as Social Insurgents Nineteenth Century, vol. 30 (1891) By Eliza Lynn Linton
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      The Partisans of the Wild Women Nineteenth Century, vol. 31 (1892) By Eliza Lynn Linton
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      Thoughts About Books [Review of The Morality of Marriage] Shafts (1898)