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.
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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
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78226-3_10
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