When did the suburbs gain their reputation as places of dullness and sterility? This book traces ... more When did the suburbs gain their reputation as places of dullness and sterility? This book traces the origins of such suburban stereotypes back to the 1820s, the earliest decade of suburban growth, and argues that those stereotypes were forged from the first to denigrate women and the new middle classes. Disdain for the suburbs blazed especially hotly at the fin de siècle. Writers like George Gissing and H. G. Wells famously presented the suburbs as dull and tedious places, inimical to creativity, and these are the images of the Victorian suburbs scholars know best to this day. This book traces a long-forgotten counter discourse back into the early decades of the century, showing that in women’s fiction especially, the suburbs functioned narratively as places of opportunity and new beginnings. The very existence of suburban problems, meanwhile, offered women a vocation, with professional work in and around the suburban home offered tentatively as the answer, the solution, the future. Drawing on a broad range of Victorian literature, from Charles Dickens and Mary Elizabeth Braddon to less well-known writers like John Claudius Loudon, Emily Eden, Bertha Buxton, Julia Frankau, and Jane Ellen Panton, this book bring forgotten voices back into the conversation about the growth of a new landscape, a new way of life.
... Sarah J. Bilston Yale University ... "The White Witch of Combe Andre... more ... Sarah J. Bilston Yale University ... "The White Witch of Combe Andrew," for instance, is a tale about a foolish servant who pur chases a magic potion from her aunt, Dame Hagley, which turns out to be a deadly poison; "Galloping Dick" describes how two elderly, superstitious 285 ...
Sensation writer Mary Elizabeth Braddon makes plenty of jokes at the expense of the suburbanites ... more Sensation writer Mary Elizabeth Braddon makes plenty of jokes at the expense of the suburbanites reading her novels, poking fun at the interests they shared, the ambitions they nursed. Yet the suburbs function narratively in her works as places of movement, opportunity, and change. Braddon deploys the plot arc of the suburban popular novel (first discussed in chapter 3) to lift worthy heroines out of the lives into which they were born. Striving heroines begin in dusty, down-at-heel Camberwell; if they work hard, and are lucky, they are rewarded with the pleasures of upper-middle-class Richmond.
Gardening advice texts evoked women gardeners as active laborers, aesthetically informed designer... more Gardening advice texts evoked women gardeners as active laborers, aesthetically informed designers, participants in the marketplace, and, toward the end of the century, even professional business partners. Reframing women’s relationship to the garden—and to society itself—across the course of Victoria’s reign, such texts do not just imagine feminine power, they hand power over to reading and gardening women. Suburban gardens become, together with the suburban interior, spaces of aesthetic experimentation, apprenticeship, and finally professional practice.
Decrying suburbia at the fin de siècle placed a speaker in a long literary and cultural tradition... more Decrying suburbia at the fin de siècle placed a speaker in a long literary and cultural tradition; Gissing, Wells, Bennett, and Forster inherited images and terms of culturally and aesthetically arid, bourgeois suburbia that had been in circulation for decades. The stereotyping of suburbia in the early to mid-Victorian years was one way of attempting to limit the increasing cultural force of the middle classes: the image of the dull, identikit suburb was a stereotype employed in the service of an aristocratic ideology that emerged at a time of upper-class retreat.
Jane Ellen Panton and Julia Frankau made their careers writing—and fighting—about the suburbs. Ch... more Jane Ellen Panton and Julia Frankau made their careers writing—and fighting—about the suburbs. Chapter 7 explores the literary relationship between Frankau and Panton and the communities of which both were a part. Suburban communities played important parts in both their careers, albeit in quite different ways: Frankau made her reputation with a novel about Jewish life in Maida Vale, while Panton rose to prominence writing about home decoration and the suburbs to the south of London. Frankau finally sought to distance herself from her Anglo-Jewish suburban beginnings and enter the ranks of the English cosmopolitan elite; Panton, born Frith, detached herself from her great father and forged a new identity for herself as “Mrs. Panton,” discovering in suburban Shortlands in Bromley a community of writers who helped her transition. The two writers viewed the different suburban communities they encountered quite differently. Yet the two were united by a refusal to view their birth identi...
Novels set in suburban locales represent a world in flux. Beneath the shifting sands of social mo... more Novels set in suburban locales represent a world in flux. Beneath the shifting sands of social mobility run thick strands of apparently common knowledge that reassure readers of continuity with the past and the existence of enduring values. These values—such as suspicion of suburban homes’ commodity status, the charge of vulgar furnishing—undoubtedly express suspicion of the new masses. But they also form a means of fostering connections, shared perspectives, in a time of dizzying change.
When did the suburbs gain their reputation as places of dullness and sterility? This book traces ... more When did the suburbs gain their reputation as places of dullness and sterility? This book traces the origins of such suburban stereotypes back to the 1820s, the earliest decade of suburban growth, and argues that those stereotypes were forged from the first to denigrate women and the new middle classes. Disdain for the suburbs blazed especially hotly at the fin de siècle. Writers like George Gissing and H. G. Wells famously presented the suburbs as dull and tedious places, inimical to creativity, and these are the images of the Victorian suburbs scholars know best to this day. This book traces a long-forgotten counter discourse back into the early decades of the century, showing that in women’s fiction especially, the suburbs functioned narratively as places of opportunity and new beginnings. The very existence of suburban problems, meanwhile, offered women a vocation, with professional work in and around the suburban home offered tentatively as the answer, the solution, the future....
John Claudius Loudon was an early proponent of the suburbs. His work represented the new spaces a... more John Claudius Loudon was an early proponent of the suburbs. His work represented the new spaces as places of meeting, community, modernity, and middle-class happiness. Loudon suggested that women were especially likely to benefit from, and contribute successfully to, this new landscape.
When did the suburbs gain their reputation as places of dullness and sterility? This book traces ... more When did the suburbs gain their reputation as places of dullness and sterility? This book traces the origins of such suburban stereotypes back to the 1820s, the earliest decade of suburban growth, and argues that those stereotypes were forged from the first to denigrate women and the new middle classes. Disdain for the suburbs blazed especially hotly at the fin de siècle. Writers like George Gissing and H. G. Wells famously presented the suburbs as dull and tedious places, inimical to creativity, and these are the images of the Victorian suburbs scholars know best to this day. This book traces a long-forgotten counter discourse back into the early decades of the century, showing that in women’s fiction especially, the suburbs functioned narratively as places of opportunity and new beginnings. The very existence of suburban problems, meanwhile, offered women a vocation, with professional work in and around the suburban home offered tentatively as the answer, the solution, the future. Drawing on a broad range of Victorian literature, from Charles Dickens and Mary Elizabeth Braddon to less well-known writers like John Claudius Loudon, Emily Eden, Bertha Buxton, Julia Frankau, and Jane Ellen Panton, this book bring forgotten voices back into the conversation about the growth of a new landscape, a new way of life.
... Sarah J. Bilston Yale University ... "The White Witch of Combe Andre... more ... Sarah J. Bilston Yale University ... "The White Witch of Combe Andrew," for instance, is a tale about a foolish servant who pur chases a magic potion from her aunt, Dame Hagley, which turns out to be a deadly poison; "Galloping Dick" describes how two elderly, superstitious 285 ...
Sensation writer Mary Elizabeth Braddon makes plenty of jokes at the expense of the suburbanites ... more Sensation writer Mary Elizabeth Braddon makes plenty of jokes at the expense of the suburbanites reading her novels, poking fun at the interests they shared, the ambitions they nursed. Yet the suburbs function narratively in her works as places of movement, opportunity, and change. Braddon deploys the plot arc of the suburban popular novel (first discussed in chapter 3) to lift worthy heroines out of the lives into which they were born. Striving heroines begin in dusty, down-at-heel Camberwell; if they work hard, and are lucky, they are rewarded with the pleasures of upper-middle-class Richmond.
Gardening advice texts evoked women gardeners as active laborers, aesthetically informed designer... more Gardening advice texts evoked women gardeners as active laborers, aesthetically informed designers, participants in the marketplace, and, toward the end of the century, even professional business partners. Reframing women’s relationship to the garden—and to society itself—across the course of Victoria’s reign, such texts do not just imagine feminine power, they hand power over to reading and gardening women. Suburban gardens become, together with the suburban interior, spaces of aesthetic experimentation, apprenticeship, and finally professional practice.
Decrying suburbia at the fin de siècle placed a speaker in a long literary and cultural tradition... more Decrying suburbia at the fin de siècle placed a speaker in a long literary and cultural tradition; Gissing, Wells, Bennett, and Forster inherited images and terms of culturally and aesthetically arid, bourgeois suburbia that had been in circulation for decades. The stereotyping of suburbia in the early to mid-Victorian years was one way of attempting to limit the increasing cultural force of the middle classes: the image of the dull, identikit suburb was a stereotype employed in the service of an aristocratic ideology that emerged at a time of upper-class retreat.
Jane Ellen Panton and Julia Frankau made their careers writing—and fighting—about the suburbs. Ch... more Jane Ellen Panton and Julia Frankau made their careers writing—and fighting—about the suburbs. Chapter 7 explores the literary relationship between Frankau and Panton and the communities of which both were a part. Suburban communities played important parts in both their careers, albeit in quite different ways: Frankau made her reputation with a novel about Jewish life in Maida Vale, while Panton rose to prominence writing about home decoration and the suburbs to the south of London. Frankau finally sought to distance herself from her Anglo-Jewish suburban beginnings and enter the ranks of the English cosmopolitan elite; Panton, born Frith, detached herself from her great father and forged a new identity for herself as “Mrs. Panton,” discovering in suburban Shortlands in Bromley a community of writers who helped her transition. The two writers viewed the different suburban communities they encountered quite differently. Yet the two were united by a refusal to view their birth identi...
Novels set in suburban locales represent a world in flux. Beneath the shifting sands of social mo... more Novels set in suburban locales represent a world in flux. Beneath the shifting sands of social mobility run thick strands of apparently common knowledge that reassure readers of continuity with the past and the existence of enduring values. These values—such as suspicion of suburban homes’ commodity status, the charge of vulgar furnishing—undoubtedly express suspicion of the new masses. But they also form a means of fostering connections, shared perspectives, in a time of dizzying change.
When did the suburbs gain their reputation as places of dullness and sterility? This book traces ... more When did the suburbs gain their reputation as places of dullness and sterility? This book traces the origins of such suburban stereotypes back to the 1820s, the earliest decade of suburban growth, and argues that those stereotypes were forged from the first to denigrate women and the new middle classes. Disdain for the suburbs blazed especially hotly at the fin de siècle. Writers like George Gissing and H. G. Wells famously presented the suburbs as dull and tedious places, inimical to creativity, and these are the images of the Victorian suburbs scholars know best to this day. This book traces a long-forgotten counter discourse back into the early decades of the century, showing that in women’s fiction especially, the suburbs functioned narratively as places of opportunity and new beginnings. The very existence of suburban problems, meanwhile, offered women a vocation, with professional work in and around the suburban home offered tentatively as the answer, the solution, the future....
John Claudius Loudon was an early proponent of the suburbs. His work represented the new spaces a... more John Claudius Loudon was an early proponent of the suburbs. His work represented the new spaces as places of meeting, community, modernity, and middle-class happiness. Loudon suggested that women were especially likely to benefit from, and contribute successfully to, this new landscape.
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