Women at home in Victorian America : a social history

Summary: In Women at Home in Victorian America, author Ellen Plante expands our view of an important, if often-overlooked, figure in the story of America's transformation from an agrarian to an urban, industrialized society: the middle-class Victorian woman. Plante makes generous use of primary sources to explore the ideals, virtues, and exotica of the Victorian domestic sphere and provides readers with an authentic record of the great utopian vision embraced by women of the era.

Record details

ISBN: 0816033927
ISBN: 9780816033928
Physical Description: print
xiii, 242 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Publisher: New York : Facts on File, ©1997.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-237) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Virtuous women. Advice to young ladies -- Courtship and marriage -- The dutiful wife -- The Victorian home. The high priestess of the home -- Victorian houses and home spaces -- Home decoration -- Motherhood and family life. Motherhood -- Children and child care -- The Victorian family -- Manners, polite society and personal appearance. Proper etiquette and deportment -- Entertaining and socializing -- Fashion and beauty -- Home work, handiwork and leisure. Domestic chores -- Handiwork and ornamental needlework -- Home crafts and leisurely pursuits -- Life's passages. Sickness and health -- Old age, death and the afterlife -- Mourning rituals -- Appendix A. Select rules of etiquette for Victorian women -- Appendix B. Nineteenth-century advice and recipes for the toilette -- Appendix C.A select listing of popular names for women during the Victorian Era.