Readers and mistresses : kept women in Victorian literature /

Part recovery and part new reading method, this work locates the few kept mistresses in Victorian literature, while offering a queer way to read for their existences when less legible. This book offers a way to read old material with new eyes and a social justice ethic.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Peel, Katie R. (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2024.
Series:	Interventions: rethinking the nineteenth century (Series)
Subjects:	English literature > 19th century > History and criticism. Mistresses in literature > Case studies. Man-woman relationships in literature > Case studies. Man-woman relationships > England > 19th century > Case studies.

Table of Contents:

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: "I am my own mistress": Kept women in Victorian literature
Old, particular, fallen, mustachioed, and queer: Other kept women
The women who did (and the men who did not)
Wives and mistresses in Anne Brontë's "The tenant of Wildfell Hall"
Marian Evans' story: The kept woman in Daniel Deronda
Near mis(tres)ses: Narrative potential v. dead ends
Conclusion: "Conventionality is not morality"
References
Index.