Examining Victorian middle-class fatherhood from the fathers' own perspective, Valerie Sanders dismantles the persistent stereotype of the nineteenth-century paterfamilias by focusing on the intimate family lives of influential public men. Beginning with Prince Albert as a high-profile patriarchal role-model, and comparing the parallel case histories of prominent Victorians such as Dickens, Darwin, Huxley and Gladstone, the book explores the strains on men in public life as they managed their private relationship with their children and found a language for the expression of their pleasure, grief and anxiety as fathers. In a context of cultural uncertainty about the legal rights and moral responsibilities of fatherhood, the study draws on a wealth of unpublished journals and letters to show how conscientious Victorian fathers in effect invented a meaningful domestic role for themselves which has been little understood.
• Explores and challenges accepted ideas about the overbearing Victorian father • Specific examples of fatherhood include major public figures such as Darwin, Dickens and Kingsley • Uses unpublished diaries, letters and memorial pieces giving access to little-known personal material
Contents
Introduction: looking for the Victorian father; 1. The failure of fatherhood at mid-century: four case histories; 2. Theatrical fatherhood: Dickens and Macready; 3. 'How?' and 'Why?': Kingsley as educating father; 4. Matthew and Son (and Father): the Arnolds; 5. 'A fine degree of paternal fervour': scientifc fathering; 6. Death comes for the Archbishop (and Prime Minister); Conclusion.
Reviews
'[Sanders] writes well, and sagely concludes with a truism that is not conformed to a specific historical time and place, concerning 'the impossibility of being the all-powerful protector against the chance contingencies of modern life'.' Modern Language Review
' … [an] excellent book …' The Brown Book: Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
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