Springer Memoirs of Victorian Working-Class Women: The Hard Way Up (Palgrave Studies in Life Writing)

This volume is the first to identify a significant body of life narratives by working-class women and to demonstrate their inherent literary significance. Placing each memoir within its generic, historical, and biographical context, this book traces the shifts in such writings over time, examines the circumstances which enabled working-class women authors to publish their life stories, and places these memoirs within a wider autobiographical tradition. Additionally, Memoirs of Victorian Working-Class Women enables readers to appreciate the clear-sightedness, directness, and poignancy of these works. From the Back Cover This volume  is the first to identify a significant body of life narratives by working-class women and to demonstrate their inherent literary significance. Placing each memoir within its generic, historical, and biographical context, this book traces the shifts in such writings over time, examines the circumstances which enabled working-class women authors to publish their life stories, and places these memoirs within a wider autobiographical tradition. Additionally,  Memoirs of Victorian Working-Class Women enables readers to appreciate the clear-sightedness, directness, and poignancy of these works. About the Author Florence S. Boos is Professor at the University of Iowa. She is the editor of Working-Class Women Poets of Victorian Britain: An Anthology (2008) and many articles and two special issues devoted to Victorian working-class writings. She is also the general editor of the William Morris Archive and the author/editor of several books on William Morris.