Introduction

Abstract

This chapter engages previous scholarship on women and the domestic sphere in the long eighteenth century by highlighting that earlier research has tended to view women’s domestic activities within a broad historical narrative. Through this, Morrissey distinguishes the approach of Women’s Domestic Activity in the Romantic-Period Novel, 1770–1820: Dangerous Occupations. Rather than viewing female domestic participation primarily in terms of its cultural or sociopolitical significance, his book places the main emphasis on how women’s day-to-day endeavours were informed by momentary thought and feeling processes, and how they created a personal sense of self and interpersonal relationships. The introduction also provides a rationale for the authors studied (Charlotte Smith, Jane Austen, Francis Burney) by emphasising the uniquely subjective perspectives each brings to the discussion.