Abstract
This chapter examines three British novels from the 1860s to show how charity and philanthropy were mechanisms by which ideals of girlhood and young womanhood were defined and articulated. In Florence Wilford’s A Maiden of Our Own Day (1862), Frances Carey Brock’s Charity Helstone (1865), and Felicia Skene’s Hidden Depths (1866), young female protagonists try to determine how their roles as sisters and daughters, and eventually as wives and mothers, could be incorporated with their responsibilities to others beyond the family circle. These novels bestow agency on their protagonists as young women make choices about charitable work and romantic partnerships that enable them to remain true to their religious and moral beliefs.
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Notes
- 1.
Henrietta Keddie wrote extensively under the pseudonym of ‘Sarah Tytler,’ publishing novels and contributing articles and fiction to a variety of periodicals.
- 2.
Hidden Depths was published in two volumes. The citations in this chapter include volume number and page.
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Moruzi, K. (2020). ‘The plain duties which are set before me’: Charity, Agency, and Women’s Work in the 1860s. In: Gavin, A., de la L. Oulton, C. (eds) British Women's Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, Volume 2. British Women’s Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, 1840-1940, vol 2. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38528-6_6
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