Suffer and Be Still: Women in the Victorian Age

by Martha Vicinus

Book Overview

The ideal woman of the Victorian era was a combination of sexual innocence, conspicuous consumption, and worship of the family hearth--with marriage and procreation being a woman's only function. Suffer and Be Still is a collection of ten lively essays which document the feminine stereotypes that Victorian women fought against, but only partially defeated.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253201683
• ISBN13: 9780253201683
• Release Date: September 1973
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining and useful

A very nice collection of essays about various aspects of the life of the Victorian woman. I read this book for the first time as a graduate student researching aspects of Victorian sexuality, but read it again recently just for my own interest and found that it kept me fascinated. Also includes a very nice (albeit dated) bibliography by S. Barbara Kanner. Essays include:"The Victorian Governess: Status Incongruence in Family and Society" M. Jeanne Peterson"From Dame to Woman: W.S. Gilbert and Theatrical Transvestism" Jane W. Stedman"Victorian Women and Menstruation" Elaine and English Showalter"Marriage, Redundancy or Sin: The Painter's View of Women in the First Twenty-Five Years of Victoria's Reign" Helene E. Roberts"A Study of Victorian Prostitution and Venereal Disease" E.M. Sigsworth and T.J. Wyke"Working Class Women in Britain, 1890-1914" Peter N. Stearns"The Debate over Women: Ruskin vs. Mill" Kate Millet"Stereotypes of Femininity in a Theory of Sexual Evolution" Jill Conway"Innocent Femina Sensualis in Unconscious Conflict" Peter T. Cominos

Writers and Monsters

This book is an excellent source for anyone researching the Victorian era and the issues surrounding women writers. The book provides both statistical and interpretive information for any serious student or literary fan.