WOMEN AND VICTORIAN VALUES, 1837-1910
Advice Books, Manuals and Journals for Women

Part 5: Sources from the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Women and Victorian Values, 1837-1910 offers a wide selection of materials concerning the many roles played by women in the Victorian period. 

During the Victorian and Edwardian periods society was underpinned by rigid moral and social values; with ideal forms of masculine and feminine behaviour.  Moral respectability and domesticity were important ideologies of feminine behaviour.  The womans mission was that of supportive wife, dutiful daughter, and caring mother, and the womans domestic role was seen as an important and pivotal part of society.  It was especially important that mothers should teach their children the values of Christian morality, which formed the foundation of society.  For men society dictated they take the authoritative role as head of the household.  The public sphere of society was controlled by male authority, with very little room for women.

Part 5 concentrates on the writings of sixteen Victorian authors, from Sarah Adams to Charlotte Yonge.  The texts, in the form of manuals, advice books, essays, pamphlets and novels, are written by authors from differing social classes, and reveal insights into many areas of Victorian social behaviour.

We begin the collection with The complete servant (1825) by Sarah and Samuel Adams, who combined their fifty years of practical experience as servants to write this guide.  Written from the viewpoint of the working classes the manual contains information relating to the duties of all servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot boy.

Isabella Mary Beeton and Samuel Orchart Beeton produced a series of extremely popular household manuals which were widely read from the mid-nineteenth century onwards.  These books were influential to the way Victorian women ran their households, and we have included ten titles in our collection.  Isabella Beeton combines practical advice with an eye to thrift and economy in titles such as, Beetons Penny Cookery Book being useful recipes for good breakfasts, dinners and suppers at a cost varying from Tenpence to Two Shillings per day for Six Persons (c.1870).  Beeton also wrote on the care of children, as in The management of children in health and sickness (1873).  While in Beetons domestic service guide (c.1875) Samuel Beeton writes about the laws between servants and masters, monthly wages, peculiar grounds for dismissal and other related matters.  Other titles by Samuel Beeton include Beetons Englishwoman Annual (1875), and Beetons complete etiquette for ladies (1876), with a companion volume of etiquette for men.

Elizabeth Blackwell was a leading figure in opening up the medical profession to women.  She was the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States in 1849, and the first woman listed in the Medical Registry of the United Kingdom in 1859.  We include a selection of her writings on health and social issues relevant to the period.  For example, the essay The laws of life (1859) gives advice on the importance of physical education for both mental and physical wellbeing in all areas of life.  Also included is the classic text entitled Counsel to parents on the moral education of their children in relation to sex (1879).  A pamphlet on the Purchase of Women: the great economic blunder (1877) concerns the evils and morals of prostitution found in all walks of society.  Blackwell documents her medical career through her correspondence with relatives and friends, and through her journal in Pioneer work in opening the medical profession to women autobiographical sketches (1895).  She was a source of inspiration for many Victorian women.

The popular works of Lydia Maria Child were written from an American view of society and culture.  We have selected five of these texts which were also popular with women in Victorian Britain.  They include The girls own book (fourth edition, 1832) which gives advice for girls on games, exercises, crafts, conundrums, charades, needlework etc., and the authors aim was, to enable them to fulfil the duties of a humble station, or to dignify and adorn the highest.  In The deeper wrong; or, incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs (1862) Child, as editor, gives her views on slavery.  In her preface she wrote, Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction, and she argues the shame of black slavery by white society.

Womens involvement in moral crusades can be found in the works by Frances Power Cobbe who dedicated much of her life to social reform.  Essayist, journalist, pamphleteer and public speaker her works include Darwinism in morals, and other essays (1872), The workhouse as a hospital (1861), The modern rack, papers on vivisection (1889), Criminals, idiots, women and minors.  Is the classification sound?  A discussion on the laws concerning the property of married women (1869) and Female education, and how it would be affected by university examinations (1862) these are five of the 14 works by Cobbe which have been included in Part 5.  Cobbes writings are considered a primary resource for the study of Victorian Englands many and varied reform movements.

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik wrote popular novels about the station and condition of men and women in society; with a concern to the moral development of her heroes and heroines.  John Halifax, gentleman (1856) is considered a key work, and a contemporary review in the Examiner described it as a story, designed to trace the career from boyhood to age of a perfect man a Christian gentleman.  Other novels we include are: The head of the family (1852), Domestic Stories (1860), Mistress and maid (1863), Hannah (1872) and My mother and I, a girls love story (1874).  We also offer two works of collected essays by Craik entitled About money and other things, a gift book (1886) and Concerning men, and other papers (1888).

The pivotal role of women as wives, mothers and daughters can be explored in a selection of thirteen works by Sarah Stickney Ellis.  We include her classic text The daughters of England, and their position in society, character, and responsibilities [1845] which gives moral and social advice on a variety of subjects. Of society Ellis says, Society is often to the daughters of a family, what business or profession is to the sons.  The instructional novel The mothers mistake (1856) is a story about a mothers responsibility in the development of her child.  The mothers of great men (1859) continues with the subject of motherhood, with a history of women as the mothers of great men, such as Henry VII and Napoleon.  An insight into the life of the author can be found in her biography The home life and letters of Mrs Ellis compiled by her nieces (1893).

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a woman of many roles including wife, mother, novelist, poet, lecturer, economist and reformer.  Her books were widely read by women in both her home country of America, and in Britain.  Writing in her role as economist and social reformer Gilman wrote Women and economics, a study of the economic relation between men and women as a factor of social education (fifth edition, 1906).  In this work Gilman argues the case for womens economic freedom, and analyses womens economic dependence on men. We also include two of her advice books on domestic matters entitled Concerning Children (1900) and The home, its work and influence (1903). 

We offer three advice books from the writings of Harriet Martineau including her classic text Health, husbandry and handicraft (1861) containing a selection of her articles written for the periodicals Once a Week and Household Words. They cover a diverse range of subjects with items on health, such as the cost of cottages; matters of husbandry, for example, the life of a salmon, and a series of studies of industrial processes and handicrafts, such as guns and pistols.  Other titles include How to observe: morals and manners (1838) and Household education (1849).

The Book of the Boudoir (1829) by Lady Sydney Morgan contains anecdotes told in the boudoir among friends, in familiar, comfortable and informal situations.  Anecdotes and essays reflect Lady Morgans view of society, religion and politics, and include chapters on a wide variety of topics including Lord Castlereagh, the Irish Union, the Philosophy of Grammar, and Methodism and Moliere.  By contrast, Woman and her Master (1840) is a history of the lives of women, and their place in society, from women of savage life through to modern times.

A plea for women (1843) by Marion Reid is a plea for the recognition of womens equal status in society.  In her preface Reid writes, it is designed to show, that social equality with man is necessary for the free growth and development of womans nature ...  The author writes on the supposed power of female influence, on the use of the term womans sphere, on business and domestic duties compared, and on womans claims to equal rights. 

The popular advice book Letters to Young Ladies (1835) by Lydia Howard Sigourney contains guidance on subjects such as the improvement of the mind, dress manners and accomplishments, books, conversation, doing good, and self-motivation.  We also include a new and enlarged edition published in 1841 containing further advice. These two books can be usefully compared to illustrate changes in society. 

House and Home (1865) by Christopher Crowfield was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe.  The work was written in a light hearted, conversational manner with a male narrative voice, and gives an account of domestic family life.  Chapters include: the ravages of a carpet, home-keeping v house-keeping, raking up the fire, economy, servants, and cooking.  By contrast, Woman in Sacred History (1874) contains a series of sketches drawn from scriptural, historical and legendary sources about the lives of inspirational women, such as Mary the mother of Jesus, and Hagar the slave.

Our final author in this collection is Charlotte Mary Yonge who wrote in the mid-Victorian period.  We offer seven of her titles which include novels, essays, an advice book, and a birthday book.  Among the novels selected we include, The clever woman of the family (1865).  Essays to inspire the young can be found in A book of golden deeds of all times and all lands (1864).  The Victorian half-century, a jubilee book (1886) records the events both domestic and public in the life of Queen Victoria.  Moral guidance to young girls about to enter maidenhood, on issues of friendship, companions, confidence and tale-telling can be found in The girls little book [1893].  Also included is The daisy chain birthday book ... from the writings of Miss Charlotte M Yonge by Eadgyth (1885) which contains extracts from many of Yonges works, and reflects the popularity and influence of her writings during this period.

This collection, written over a period of some eighty years, shows the many different roles women played in Victorian society.  Through these advice books and manuals it is revealed how it was thought that women should behave, in both the domestic and social spheres.  Novels were a source of pleasure as well as moral instruction, and much can be learned from these about the station and condition of men and women in society.  Essays reveal womens opinions on subjects such as Christian ethics, Darwinism, philosophy, slavery, vivisection, economics, politics, and men. 

These titles allow us to compare and contrast works written by domestic servants, wives, mothers, daughters, essayists, journalists, pamphleteers, novelists, historians, economists and a physician.  We can look at the question as to why some works became household names, whilst others remained little known.  We can assess whether the views held by American writers were influential in shaping society in Victorian Britain.  How did these women authors see their role in society, and what were their expectations?  The wealth of information to be found in this collection will help scholars research these, and many other questions, about Victorian social and domestic life.

These volumes handsomely complement the existing range of sources provided in this series and will expand our knowledge of Victorian society.