Ladies of the Leisure Class: The Bourgeoises of Northern France in the 19th Century

Bonnie G. Smith

Published by Princeton University Press 1982

Ladies of the Leisure Class

The Bourgeoises of Northern France in the 19th Century

Bonnie G. Smith

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691209487

Overview
Contents

About this book

In a social and cultural study of nineteenth-century bourgeois women in northern France, Bonnie Smith shows how the advent of industrialization removed women from the productive activity of the middle class and confined them to a largely reproductive experience. Out of this, she suggests, they created their own world, centered on domesticity, family, and religion. To understand these women, the author argues, it is necessary to examine their world on its own terms as a coherent whole.

Professor Smith draws on demographic, psychoanalytic, anthropological, linguistic, as well as historical insights and uses a variety of evidence that includes personal interviews, photographs, letters, genealogical records, and traditional archival sources. Part One outlines the transition from mercantile to industrial manufacturing that terminated the relationship between home and business and that separated the sexes according to their respective functions. Part Two concentrates on the lives of the women following their acceptance of an exclusively reproductive function and shows how the interdependence and fusion of household chores, religious values, and social conscience fostered a unified cultural system. Part Three, then, explores the propagation of this domesticity by the convent, as the primary educational system, and by the sentimental novel, as the vehicle most suited for an ideological expression of domestic life.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
List of Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Part I. The Historical Context
1. Introduction: A World Apart Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. The Nord and Its Men Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
3. The Productive Life of Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
Part II. The Domestic System
4. Domesticity: The Rhetoric of Reproduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
5. Cosmos: Faith versus Reason Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
6. Society: Charity versus Capitalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Part III. Passing the Torch
7. Education: Innocence versus Enlightenment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
8. The Domestic Myth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
9. Woman's Mentality versus Liberal Consciousness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
Appendix Tables Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Acknowledgments and Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	230
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297

Language: English
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 320
Keywords: account books; Barrois-Virnot; Alexandrine; Bécour; Julia; biology and physiology; Bourdon; Mathilde; Catholicism; charity; children; crèches; De Gaulle; Josephine; domesticity; Douai; etiquette; family; fashion and clothing; food; industry and business; Jesus Christ; Lille; Mary; Mother of Jesus; monarchism; music; needlework; Paris; rationalism; ritual; sexuality; secularism

eBook

Published: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 9780691209487