Servants and Paternalism in the Works of Maria Edgeworth and Elizabeth Gaskell

Nash (English, U. of Massachusetts-Lowell) shows how the novels of Edgeworth (1767-1849) and Gaskell (1810-65) portray a Britain in which strict class hierarchies were being re-evaluated and re-invented. Going beyond the permissible feminine realms of courtship and marriage, she says, they addressed the exploitation of the Irish peasantry, anti-Semitism, the imbalance of power within marriage, and other areas. She finds that they also prescribed how to accommodate social change while maintaining order. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)