The Arts in Victorian Britain

[Ein Heldenleben]

I would think that it's a mistake to try and pinpoint a single group of the victims of the politico-social establishment in Victorian Britain as "the (sole) outsiders", greeni. Certainly women were dismissed as serious contenders in intellectual and creative life (to the extent that novelists such as Mary Ann Evans and the Bronte sisters had to publish under male pseudonyms, for example) - all part of the enforcement of their "role" in post-French Revolutionary society. But there's a whole pernicious spectrum of people whose talents were disregarded and left to rot unsupported: Working (and many middle)-class people, and religious and/or racial minority groups were also kept out of the Gentlemen's Club in Victorian Britain.

I think it’s so much more complex than that . Yes women did not have the vote nor , until the enormously important Married Women’s Property Act did they have any rights over the wealth they bought into a marriage . But many Victorian women did have significant influence and were ‘serious contenders in intellectual and social life.’ George Eliot was an enormously influential public intellectual . The ‘condition of England ‘ novels of Mrs Gaskell , the critique of the subservient nature of a woman’s life in Victorian England in the work of the Brontës all threw into focus in an unapologetic way life as a woman in a male dominated society.Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning , Florence Nightingale , Josephine Butler....I could fill a page with the names of Victorian women who refused to be marginalised and in the case of the latter two transformed the lives of those lucky enough to come under their purlieu ( oops getting a bit Victorian there ). They did not think of themselves as victims - they were too busy righting monstrous injustices . The ‘gentlemen’s club’ had very rocky foundations.

[ardcarp]

...and by happy coincidence:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bcnv

[Serial_Apologist]

...and by happy coincidence:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bcnv

What a lovely face - never seen that portrait before: those eyes...

[vinteuil]

...Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning , Florence Nightingale , Josephine Butler....I could fill a page with the names of Victorian women who refused to be marginalised and in the case of the latter two transformed the lives of those lucky enough to come under their purlieu (oops getting a bit Victorian there). ...

... or possibly purview?


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[Ein Heldenleben]

... or possibly purview?


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Yes that’s the mot juste ! Thanks

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

...and by happy coincidence:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bcnv

... and to add to the joy:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000b8nj/arena-everything-is-connected-george-eliots-life