London Girl of 1880's

by Molly Hughes

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192812432
• ISBN13: 9780192812438
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Remarkable, fascinating and moving

This is the second volume in Mary Hughes's autobiographical trilogy, which starts with "A London Child of the 1870's". All three are recommended. This volume may be the best of the three, because in the first one Mary Hughes is just a child, but in this book she more clearly shows what a remarkable person she was. She was raised in a family that valued education and literature, and although she attended no school until she was eleven, she was an outstanding pupil and was one of the first women in a new teacher's training college in Cambridge. She later, in her early twenties, ran a teacher's training institution herself; and her commonsense account of her principles and what she tried to impart to her students--who were often older and more experienced than she was--is fascinating reading. The real attraction of the book, however, is her personality: Mary Hughes (or rather Mary Thomas, as she was then) was clearly one of those people for whom nothing but real tragedy can overcome a basically cheerful and good-humoured outlook. Her stories of school, family and college life are detailed enough to feel intimate and closely-observed enough to be truly informative about what life was like in the 1880's. Textbooks can give you data, but can't make you feel as though you knew what it was to be a Londoner in Victorian times. This book helps fill the gap so thoroughly you will feel like a friend of the family at the end of it. The books are moving, too: her large family was not immune to tragedy, and it is an emotional shock when a death occurs. Strongly recommended; but I would suggest you read the first volume before this -- it is just as good, and if you read it you will enjoy this one even more.