Imagining Women's Property in Victorian Fiction

Imagining Women's Property in Victorian Fiction explores how the reform of married women's property law between 1856 and 1882 transformed economic rights and representation in nineteenth-century novels. It suggests that legal rights clashed with other family claims, and the reallocation of wealth affected far more than spouses or the marital state. The book explores how women's financial agency was imagined by fiction that engages with but also diverges from the law in accounts of economic choices and transactions.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 20 April 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Imagining Women's Property in Victorian Fiction offers a fresh perspective on the evolving economic rights of Victorian women and their representation in nineteenth-century novels. The reform of married women's property law between 1856 and 1882 marked a significant economic transformation in England, challenging family traditions and reshaping the legal and theoretical nature of wedlock. While the law provided women with the ability to reclaim their assets and regain economic agency, literary accounts suggest that reforms were not as straightforward as the law implied and had far-reaching consequences beyond marriage.

In nineteenth-century fiction, depictions of women's claims to ownership provide insight into the social networks formed through property transactions and offer a lens to examine a wide range of social issues. These include testamentary practices, wills, and copyright law; economic and evolutionary models of mutuality; the dangers of greed and generosity; inheritance and custody rights; the economic implications of loyalty and family obligation; and the legacy of nineteenth-century economic practices for women today.

Understanding the reform of married women's property as both an ideologically and materially substantial redistribution of the nation's wealth and one complicated by competing cultural traditions, this book explores the widespread impact of these reforms on women's lives and societal attitudes. It sheds light on the complex negotiations and conflicts that emerged as women sought to assert their rights and redefine their roles within the family and the broader society.

By examining the representation of women's property in Victorian fiction, this book contributes to our understanding of the complex interplay between economic, social, and cultural forces in nineteenth-century England. It offers valuable insights into the ways in which women negotiated the boundaries between tradition and modernity, and how they sought to shape their own destinies in a rapidly changing world.

Weight: 496g
Dimension: 241 x 161 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192867261