The Hour and the Woman

by Logan, Deborah Anna

• ISBN13: 9780875802978
• ISBN10: 0875802974
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Northern Illinois Univ Pr

Summary

A British journalist and pioneering reformer, Harriet Martineau reigned at the forefront of debates over social and political issues during the Victorian era. The Hour and the Womanchronicles the "somewhat remarkable" life of one of history's most influential, yet overlooked, women writers. At a time when women were valued primarily for appearance, social class, and marital status, Martineau-plain, poor, and single-fought against the odds to win recognition as a writer. Her first professional triumph came in the 1830s when she published a multivolume work on political economy. International fame and literary reputation followed, launching a career that would span the next thirty-five years and plunge Martineau into heated reform efforts on both sides of the Atlantic. Martineau strove to use her personal and political influence for good by staunchly supporting the causes in which she believed. Her fight for the eradication of slavery strengthened the abolitionist movement in the years before the American Civil War, and her advocacy of temperance and women's rights lent crucial assistance to those causes. Many of Martineau's contemporary female writers, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Harriet Beecher Stowe, supported her in these endeavors and encouraged her through long-lasting correspondence. The most comprehensive Martineau history to date, The Hour and the Womanoffers a unique view of one of the nineteenth century's most complex and fascinating women.

Author Biography

Deborah Anna Logan is Assistant Professor of English at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
A Note on the Letters	xi
Prologue---Literary Grandmothers and the Spirit of the Victorian Age	3	(6)
Popularizer and Prophet: A Victorian Literary Identity	9	(27)
Fancywork and Bluestockingism; or, Needles and Pens	36	(42)
America's Martyr Age and Reign of Terror	78	(39)
``I Would Fain Treat of Woman''	117	(47)
``Not Fine Ladies, but True-Hearted Englishwomen''	164	(57)
``(Entre Nous, Please)'': ``Letters Are the Thing''	221	(38)
Epilogue---``The One Thing Needful''	259	(12)
Appendix	271	(2)
Notes	273	(40)
Works Cited	313	(6)
Index	319