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From Queen Victoria to the Sensation Writers

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From Queen Victoria to the Sensation Writers ROYALLY FICTIONAL FAMILIES: FROM QUEEN VICTORIA TO THE SENSATION WRITERS By Vicky Simpson MA, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2002 BA (Hon), Acadia University, 2001 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Academic Unit of English, Faculty of Arts Supervisor: Mary Rimmer, PhD, Department of English Examining Board: Steve Turner, PhD, Department of History, Chair Gail Campbell, PhD, Department of History Roger Ploude, PhD, Department of English External Examiner: Andrew Maunder, PhD, School of Humanities, University of Hertfordshire This dissertation is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK December, 2009 © Vicky Simpson, 2010 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-82760-4 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-82760-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada ii Dedication To Bubba Chabowski iii Abstract This project brings together two related nineteenth-century British discourses: the idealization of the royal hearth and the craze for sensation. It traces the development of the cultural narrative of Queen Victoria, from the early literary experiments and counter- narratives to the frenzied reginamania that coincided with mass-market sensation fiction in the late 1850s and early 1860s. By locating sensation within the history of larger cultural forces, this study shows how the sensation novel articulated, explored, and, in some cases, provoked anxieties surrounding the model Victorian family. The four chapters loosely follow a chronological order: the first two examine the early years of Victoria's reign and the growing sensation over the manufactured image of the royal family; the second two examine the development of the sensation novel and its focus on family and property, with an exploration of works by three seminal sensation writers, Wilkie Collins, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and Ellen Wood. This project demonstrates how the royal idyll occupied substantial space not only in the British home but also in the female imagination, and how sensation fiction, like the spectacle of the royal family, played on fantasies about and fictive visions of the family. These novels reveal and exploit common mid-Victorian fears about the family, including issues such as adultery, bigamy, divorce, illegitimacy, paternity disputes, inherited insanity, and mistaken identity, but they also paradoxically reinforce a desire for the idyllic household by making it seem all the more precious and elusive. Indeed, the ideal family was seen by many as the most valuable property a Victorian could own. I will argue that sensation novels highlight women's role in producing, maintaining, and marketing the family, and iv firmly established a new kind of heroine who emulates the queen's example—the active and inventive female "homemaker," a term that was coined in 1876. However, these novels also reveal that some were reappraising the value of the ideal family and beginning to reject it, showing an eager audience the possibilities for alternative and fulfilling family structures. V Acknowledgements I would like to thank the many people who supported me in both personal and practical ways and who helped make this accomplishment possible. My family and friends have been steadfastly suppportive of me. My husband, Peter, provided love, understanding, and humour, and, above all, a clear perspective when my own was so often missing. I greatly appreciate all of the close friendships I have made at UNB. Not only are my friends incredibly smart cookies, but they also really like cookies—and all other calorie-laden treats—which means I got support of various kinds when I needed it most. Several people have contributed to my professional development, my research, and my dissertation in significant ways. I am grateful to the Department of English, its staff and faculty, and especially Roger Ploude, as chair, for the numerous funding, teaching, and professional opportunities I have had, all of which have broadened my experience and enriched my research. I would like to thank Gail Campbell, Steve Turner, Roger Ploude, and Andrew Maunder for agreeing to serve on my committee and for their insights on my project. Diana Austin and Edie Snook were the department readers, and their perceptive feedback was another huge help in polishing the project. Finally, I owe the biggest thank you to my supervisor, Mary Rimmer. From the moment I applied to UNB, Mary wholeheartedly supported my ideas and gave me the freedom and encouragement to help them grow. I have learned a great deal from her example and continue to be impressed by the breadth and depth of her knowledge. But she also remembers the emotional and professional stress that comes with being a grad vi student, and I thank her for her tact in dealing with my many quirks, such as my all- encompassing love for transitions regardless of whether or not they fit my sentences. Above all, Mary is a bottomless source of wisdom, advice, and encouragement—this dissertation would have been weaker without her, but also much less enjoyable to write. vii Table of Contents Dedication ii Abstract. iii Acknowledgements v Table of Contents vii Introduction 1 Chapter One: Imagining Queen Victoria 17 Sensational Royals in the Background 19 A Nineteenth-Century Heroine 27 Intruders in the Palace 38 Perfecting the Picture of Domestic Sovereignty 51 Chapter Two: Buying into the Greatest "Text" of the Age 61 The Commodification of the Royal Family 62 The Exalted Family Falters 76 The Death in/of the Family 85 The Rise of the Sensation Genre 95 Chapter Three: Fantasizing about Female Possession in Sensation Fiction 103 The Sensational Side of Victorian Domesticity 104 Living in the Tower with Paul Ferroll Ill The "Real Estate" of Families in No Name 115 The "pleasant picture it might have been" in Lady Audley's Secret 133 Chapter Four: Recognizing the Majesty of Ellen Wood 153 Wood's Literary Empire 154 Aristocratic Artifice and Costly Consumption 160 Family Frictions 171 The Other Half of the Human Family 180 Barbara Hare and the Maternal Ideal 185 Conclusion 197 Works Cited 201 Curriculum Vitae 1 Introduction Vixen felt a thrill of pity as she listened to this brief confession of a self-deluded soul [...] The line of demarcation between such fanaticism as Miss Skipwith's and the hallucination of an old lady in Bedlam, who fancies herself Queen Victoria, seemed to Vixen but a hair's breadth. But, after all, if the old lady and Miss Skipwith were both happy in their harmless self-deceptions, why should one pity them? The creature to be pitied is the man or woman who keenly sees and feels the hard realities of life, and cannot take pleasure in phantoms. (71) Violet "Vixen" Tempest makes an unusual point about fanaticism in this passage from Mary Elizabeth Braddon's novel Vixen (1879). Braddon is one of the best known sensation writers from the mid-Victorian period, and, as Albert C. Sears has pointed out, this particular novel self-reflexively refers to the conventions of the sensation genre (41). Violet's reading of contemporary sensation novels helps her imagine another existence for herself while she lives out her uneventful stay at a spinster's country home. As Violet suggests above, many women participated in "harmless self-deceptions," such as imagining themselves to be the queen. But why might women choose the seemingly stolid and unsensational Queen Victoria for such fantasies? This project brings together two related nineteenth-century British discourses: the idealization of the royal hearth and the craze for sensation. While the century unfolded, a 2 phenomenal reginamania over Queen Victoria and her family grew. The term "reginamania," first used in 1838, describes an excessive and frenzied public interest in the queen's personal life, perhaps to the point of obsession. A similar interest in private lives sparked a sensation craze that slowly swept the country, and writers catered to the demand for scandalous stories filled with mystery and moral obliquity. Margaret Oliphant first used the term "sensation" in a book review in 1855, and reviewers and critics picked up the label and attached it to works throughout the late 1850s and 1860s.
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