Department of English
Writing the Journey: June 1999
"The American Scene According to Emily Faithfull, Victorian Feminist"
Nina Allen
English Department
Suffolk University
nallen@acad.suffolk.edu
Emily Faithfull (1835-1895) was a mid-19th Century British social reformer and publisher who gave herself unstintingly to the cause of women's advancement. Between 1958 and 1895, the British government enacted sweeping reforms concerning employment, education, and votes for women, as well as married women's property, and the custody of children. These changes were initiated by a group of activist women known as the Langham Place Circle of which Faithfull was a member. Faithfull achieved renown as the founder of the Victoria Press, where impoverished women were trained successfully as compositors. At mid-century, typsetting was deemed strictly the domain of men. She also wrote and lectured widely on women's issues both in England and the United States.
My paper focuses on Faithfull's travel book Three Visits to America, which was published simultaneously in Europe and the United States in October, 1884. The book was well received on both sides of the Atlantic. In England, the Lady's Pictorial, for instance, favorably compared Faithfull's impressions of America with those of Harriet Martineau and Mrs. Trollope. The three visits referred to in the title actually amounted to extended tours, the first in 1872-3, the second ten years later in 1882-3, and the final trip in 1883-4. In part, the book is a reworking of various articles Faithfull already had submitted to a host of publications in England and America. Not surprisingly, much of the content is concerned with the status of American women. Prompted by several America newspapers, she investigated the treatment of Mormon women in Salt Lake City, Utah, devoting an entire chapter to her findings. But Faithfull also has a good deal to say about American-style democracy, about the cultural scene, especially theater and music, and about American customs.
In my paper, I argue that for all her feminism, Emily Faithful was more a gentlewoman than a radical. Nor would she have considered herself otherwise. Faithfull was typical of more than a few British upper and middleclass women of her time who were willing to work hard to change the social machinery yet eschewed political militancy in order to preserve their social standing. Ultimately, as a chronicler of the American scene, Faithfull has much to tell us about feminism during the Victorian period its contradictions as well as its progress -- on both sides of the Atlantic.
Nina Allen
English Department
Suffolk University
41 Temple St., Beacon Hill
(617) 573-8271 (w); (617) 576-3699 (h)
nallen@acad.suffolk.edu
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