Abstract
This chapter explores the position of single Victorian women writers in the 1850s when the results of the 1851 Census stimulated vociferous debate about the role and ‘problem’ of ‘excess’ single women. Showing that the contemporary interpretation of Census statistics, which revealed a surplus of single women, was inaccurate, Connor discusses male critics’ views of women’s writing, particularly fiction by unmarried women. Margaret Oliphant declared the period the ‘age of women novelists,’ and fiction was a powerful platform for single women authors to contest often damning perceptions of unmarried women. However, the popularity of women’s writing and fiction’s role as moral guide led male reviewers in particular to warn against fiction by single women as detrimental both to readers and to women writers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Works Cited
Altick, Richard D. ‘The Sociology of Authorship: The Social Origins, Education and Occupation of 1100 British Writers, 1800–1935.’ Bulletin of the New York Public Library 66 (1962): 389–404.
Anon, ‘Civilisation – The Census.’ Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine 77(473) (March 1855): 339.
Anon, ‘Hearts in Mortmain and Cornelia.’ Prospective Review 24 (October 1850): 495.
Census of Great Britain. HMSO: 1851. Vol. 2. London: Clowes & Son, 1854.
Eliot, George. ‘Madame de Sablé.’ 1854. In Selected Critical Writings. Ed. Rosemary Ashton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. 37–68.
———. ‘Silly Novels by Lady Novelists.’ 1856. In Selected Critical Writings. Ed. Rosemary Ashton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. 296–321.
Greenwell, Dora. ‘Our Single Women.’ North British Review 36 (1862): 63–68.
[Greg, W. R.] ‘False Morality of Lady Novelists.’ National Review 15 (Jan 1859): 144–67.
———. ‘Why are Women Redundant?’ National Review 14(28) (1862) 434–60.
Hutton, R. H. ‘Novels by the Authoress of John Halifax.’ North British Review 29 (1858): 467–81.
[Lewes, G. H.] ‘The Lady Novelists.’ Westminster Review 2 (1852): 129–41.
[Ludlow, J. M.]. ‘Ruth. A Novel.’ North British Review 19 (1853) 151–74.
[Oliphant, Margaret]. ‘Modern Novelists – Great and Small.’ Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine 77 (May 1855): 554–68.
[Sala, George Augustus]. ‘Numbers of People.’ Household Words 10 (21 October 1854): 221–28.
Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of Their Own: From Charlotte Brontë to Doris Lessing. London: Virago, 1999.
Worsnop, Judith. ‘A Reevaluation of “The Problem of Surplus Women” in 19th Century England.’ Women’s Studies International Forum 13(1–2) (1990): 21–31.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Connor, S. (2018). The Age of the Female Novelist: Single Women as Authors of Fiction. In: Gavin, A., de la L. Oulton, C. (eds) British Women's Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, Volume 1. British Women’s Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, 1840-1940, vol 1. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78226-3_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78226-3_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78225-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78226-3
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)