Dress, Distress And Desire

Batchelor (English, U. of Kent) explores representations of sartorial experience in 18th-century literature. She examines a wide range of canonical and non-canonical texts, including novels, conduct books, and women's magazines to investigate the pressures that the growth of the fashion market placed on conceptions of female virtue and propriety. She concludes with an analysis of the backlash against sentimental literature by advocates of sensibility such as novelist and educator Maria Edgeworth. The text is based upon Batchelor's doctoral dissertation. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR