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Kathryn Thrifted Reading's avatar

So interesting. This makes me want to read more Brontë books!! I think it’s also interesting to note what happens to the old governesses who are no longer needed to teach but rely on the family’s sense of duty to stay with them

on retirement. I’ve just read The Woman in White so thinking of Mrs Vesey , or in 20thC lit Miss Milliment in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles

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Books & Culture's avatar

That’s an interesting thought indeed! Normally the governesses in literature are young and with the possibility of marriage. Older governesses would have an even more restricted horizon!

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Liz Gwedhan's avatar

I love Agnes Grey. More than Jane Eyre truth be told. The final scene always makes me teary.

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Books & Culture's avatar

“Agnes Grey” is beautiful! Less gothic and less majestic than “Jane Eyre”, but precious for these reasons! 💕

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Alison Baxter's avatar

Me too! It heavily influenced the governess chapters in my Cornish book. Her description of the horrible children is so real and so relatable.

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It's Hell, Actually's avatar

Thank you do much.

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Books & Culture's avatar

I’m happy you liked the post! 📚

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It's Hell, Actually's avatar

I loved it! I'm doing a thing on Victorian London, so this article resonates perfectly with me:)

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Books & Culture's avatar

How wonderful! I’m passionate about Victorian literature! What are you working on?

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It's Hell, Actually's avatar

It's a novel that happens in 1887-1889, with consequences that reach 1909. You can read first 6 chapters on my publication called Victorian Hell. It's called MJD:) it can also be accessed through Scriptorium main menu chapter by chapter)

https://victorianhell.substack.com/p/mjd?r=257g8a

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Emma Darwin's avatar

The demographic overlap between C19 women who might become governesses and women who might become novelists, (relatively educated, needing to earn a living but with some possibility of a room of one's own) must have been sizeable. Plus ‘what you know’ is usually easier to write well than what you must imagine from observation and research and then write as if you know it (which is not to say that writers should write what they know - just that it’s sometimes easier.)

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Cursed Histories's avatar

Love this line: “But for some, the governess’s room became the writer’s first study.” The Brontës used their experiences to create art and speak for those on the margins of society. They were truly iconic.

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Alison Baxter's avatar

The image I chose for my Substack is a sampler embroidered by a little girl who went on to become a successful governess. I wrote about it here

https://open.substack.com/pub/writingfamilyhistory/p/coming-soon?r=30cqjp&utm_medium=ios

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Liz S's avatar

The Victorian Governess by Kathryn Hughes is very interesting and informative on the role and social position of governesses in the Victorian era. https://kathrynhughes.co.uk/

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Lucy Hearne Keane's avatar

Love this piece. I had not thought that deeply about the governess's place in Victorian literature before

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