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Investment Cultures in Dickens, Trollope, and Gissing

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Women, Literature and Finance in Victorian Britain

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Literature, Culture and Economics ((PSLCE))

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on how influential male authors of the Victorian period represented women investors. W.M. Thackeray represents female investors in the East India Company with ironic skepticism about their power as voting shareholders. Anthony Trollope introduces various types, including the widow of business and the timid investing spinster. Charles Dickens railed against the American worship of dollars and the regime of shares. Strongly influenced by Dickens and Trollope, George Gissing focuses on lower-middle-class women investors. His novels explore the ambiguities of the New Woman’s place in society, suggesting that limited financial empowerment did not always lead to independence.

We must never intrench upon our capital—never—never!

—George Gissing, The Odd Women

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  1. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Nancy Henry

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Correspondence to Nancy Henry .

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Henry, N. (2018). Investment Cultures in Dickens, Trollope, and Gissing. In: Women, Literature and Finance in Victorian Britain. Palgrave Studies in Literature, Culture and Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94331-2_3

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