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Publication Date
11-15-2024
Description
Land ownership—and engagement with land more generally—constituted a crucial dimension of female independence in eighteenth-century Britain. Because political citizenship was restricted to male property owners, women could not wield political power in the way propertied men did. Given its foundational sociopolitical function, land necessarily generated copious writing that vested it with considerable aesthetic and economic value. This book, then, situates these issues in relation to the historical transformation of landscape under emergent capitalism. The women writers featured herein—including Jane Barker, Anne Finch, Sarah Scott, and Elizabeth Montagu—participated in this transformation by celebrating female estate stewardship and evaluating the estate stewardship of men. By asserting their authority in such matters, these writers acquired a degree of independence and self-determination that otherwise proved elusive.
Keywords
Women’s writing, Women writers, Landscape, Property, Landownership, Country house, Stately home, Garden, Custom, Female independence, Jane Barker, Anne Finch, Sarah Scott, Elizabeth Montagu, Eighteenth-century England, Bluestockings, The Galesia Trilogy, Millenium Hall
Rights
Copyright © 2025 by Nicolle Jordan All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Bucknell University Press, Hildreth-Mirza Hall, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837–2005. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
ISBN
9781684485420
