Ends of History

<p>Why were the Victorians so passionate about History?</p><p>How did this passion relate to another Victorian obsession – the woman question? In a brilliant and provocative study Christina Crosby investigates the links between the Victorians’ fascination with history and with the nature of women.</p><p>Discussing both key novels and non-literary texts – <em>Daniel Deronda</em> and Hegel’s <em>Philosophy of History</em>; <em>Henry Esmond</em> and Macaulay’s <em>History of England</em>; <em>Little Dorrit</em> Wilkie Collins’ <em>The Frozen Deep</em> and Mayhew’s survey of labour and the poor; <em>Villette</em> Patrick Fairburn’s <em>The Typology of Scripture</em> and Ruskin’s <em>Modern Painters</em> – she argues that the construction of middle-class Victorian man as the universal subject of history entailed the identification of women as those who are before beyond above or below history. Crosby’s analysis raises a crucial question for today’s feminists – how can one read historically without replicating the problem of nineteenth century history?</p><p>The book was first published in 1991.</p>