Consuming Fantasies: Labor, Leisure, and the London Shopgirl

Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page i CONSUMING FANTASIES Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page ii Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page iii Consuming Fantasies: LABOR, LEISURE, AND THE LONDON SHOPGIRL, 1880–1920 Lise Shapiro Sanders The Ohio State University Press Columbus Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page iv Copyright © 2006 by The Ohio State University Press. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sanders, Lise, 1970– Consuming fantasies : labor, leisure, and the London shopgirl, 1880–1920 / Lise Shapiro Sanders. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8142-1017-1 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8142-9093-0 (cd-rom) 1. English literature—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Women sales personnel in literature. 3. English literature—20th century—History and criticism. 4. Women sales personnel—England— London—History. 5. Working class women—England—London— History. 6. Department stores—England—London—History. 7. Retail trade—England—London—History. 8. Women and literature— England—London. 9. London (England)—In literature. 10. Sex role in literature. I. Title. PR468.W6S26 2006 820.9'3522—dc22 2005029994 Cover design by Jeff Smith. Type set in Adobe Garamond. Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48–1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page v CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Constructing the Shopgirl: The Politics of Everyday Life 19 2. Figuring the Female Body: Labor, Sex, and Desire in the Department Store 54 3. The Failures of the Romance: Boredom and the Production of Consuming Desires 97 4. Imagining Alternatives to the Romance: Absorption and Distraction as Modes of Reading 126 5. Distracted Pleasures: Gender, Leisure, and Consuming in Public 170 Conclusion 194 Notes 201 Bibliography 247 Index 273 Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page vi Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS “Taking the Law in One’s Own Hands,” Punch, 24 July 1880 40 Margaret Bondfield (“Grace Dare”), Shop Assistant, c. 1897 47 Physical Culture Class, Harrodian Gazette, August 1914 65 Harrodian Ladies’ Hockey Team, Harrodian Gazette, May 1915 66 Harrodian Ladies’ Rifle Team with Their Instructors, Harrodian Gazette, June 1915 67 Selfridges’ “Personality Tree,” London Magazine, c. 1910s 79 “Essie Armytage,” Dorothy Novelette, April 1890 150 “Dorothy’s Fashion Supplement,” Dorothy Novelette, April 1890 152 “A Little White Slave,” Forget-Me-Not, March 1904 162 “Only A Shop Girl,” Girls’ Friend, October 1903 164 Still from Damaged Goods, 1919 191 Ladies’ Sitting Room, Harrodian Gazette, July 1920 199 vii Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page viii Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book began as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago, and could not have taken shape without the support and encouragement of my codirectors, Elizabeth Helsinger and Elaine Hadley, and my readers, Lauren Berlant and Tom Gunning. Their scholarship served as both model and inspiration for my work. The project was initially supported by a dissertation fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and subsequently by a Newberry Library- British Academy Visiting Research Fellowship (for which I would like to thank especially James R. Grossman and Carol Rennie) and the Faculty Development Funds of Hampshire College. The generous financial support provided by these institutions enabled me to conduct research in England that I could not accomplish anywhere else—a true gift. I am grateful for the expertise of many individuals at libraries and archives in the United States and the United Kingdom. I would like to thank especially the staffs of the Five College Libraries and the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library, especially the Interlibrary Loan and Special Collections departments; David Smith at the New York Public Library; Philip Stokes and Stewart Barcham at the British Library and Jill Albrooke at the Newspaper Library at Colindale; Kathleen Dickson and Luke McKernan at the British Film Institute/National Film and Television Archive; the staffs of the Women’s Library (then the Fawcett Library) and the London Metropolitan Archives; and particularly the archivists at Harrods (Nadene Hansen and Sebastian Wormell), Selfridges (Fred Redding), and John Lewis (Judy Faraday), all of whom gave generously of their time to assist me in research. Nadene Hansen deserves a special thanks for introducing me to Norah Irwin Slade, a 1916 employee of Harrods, who offered me her gracious hospitality (and a delicious afternoon tea) during an interview in her home in 1998. The illustrations for the book were made possible through the efforts of Christine Campbell, Felicia Cukier, Sue Filmer, Nicholas Roberts, David Samuelson, and Sebastian Wormell. My colleagues at Hampshire College have been a tremendous intellectual resource for the past six years, and have consistently impressed me with the caliber of their teaching and research. The manuscript greatly benefited as a result of conversations with Norm Holland, Brown Kennedy, Sura Levine, Sandra Matthews, Eva Rueschmann, Falguni Sheth, Susan Tracy, Jim Wald, and Jeff Wallen. I owe a particular debt of gratitude ix Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page x x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS to Eric Schocket, whose work has inspired me to think about class in new ways, and to Mary Russo, whose scholarship and teaching first captivated me and who has been an invaluable mentor and friend for more than a decade. I would also like to thank a number of people, both near and far-flung, for their interest and thoughtful comments on my work. The research sug- gestions of many scholars in Victorian literature, women’s history, early cinema, and cultural studies were immensely helpful in the early stages. Particular thanks go to the respondents to my query to the VICTORIA listserv, including Miriam Burstein, Julie Early, Ellen Jordan, Eve Lynch, and Sally Mitchell, and to Judith Walkowitz, who introduced me to the work of Erika Rappaport. Erika’s project in many ways made my own possible, and I am grateful for her detailed replies to my numerous queries. Thanks also to Kay Boardman, Margaret Beetham, Stacy Gillis, Fiona Hackney, Andrew Higson, Nicholas Hiley, Jon Klancher, Annette Kuhn, Laura Rotunno, Talia Schaffer, David Shumway, Ana Vadillo, and Elizabeth Wilson, all of whose research questions inspired and enriched my own. Meredith McGill, Andrew Parker, and Jutta Sperling each offered guidance during the early stages of the publication process, and the comments of several anonymous readers strengthened the project in its later stages. Pamela Walker read the penultimate version of the manuscript with care and attention. The editorial staff at The Ohio State University Press have been a true pleasure to work with. Heather Lee Miller was a tireless advocate of the book, and Sandy Crooms, Malcolm Litchfield, and Eugene O’Connor have deftly shepherded the manuscript through publication. My students at Hampshire have been a continual source of intellectual stimulation, and their perspectives on this material have often opened up new avenues of research. My thanks to Morgan Bernal, Devan Goldstein, and Patricia Miller, whose work dovetailed in surprising ways with my own, and to the members of my seminar “Odd Women: Gender, Class, and Victorian Culture,” especially Meagan Foster, Miranda Ganzer, Megan Kennedy, Sara McCown, Henriette Recny, and Azadeh Shariatmadar, who constitute an inspiring new generation of Victorianists. Many family members and friends have been an inexhaustible source of emotional sustenance. Among them are my extended family—the Foster, Shapiro, Sideman, Templeton, Rose, and Sanders clans—especially Judy and David Sanders, who have provided a home away from home wherever they might be; Mark, Kristina, and Natalia Sanders; and Lisa Foster, Marcus Lille, and Jon Shapiro, who never failed to remind me to have fun every now and again. Pat and Marisa Chappell and Adam Lowenstein were a source of camaraderie during the early years, as were Sanders_FM_3rd.qxp 1/19/2006 10:23 AM Page xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi Rebecca Neimark, Lee Spector, Matt Soar, and Jen Turkstra later on. Audrey Brashich shared wonderful writerly insights. Viveca Greene, Chris Perry, and Jordan and Noe Perry-Greene provided the best distractions and companionship I could imagine. Allison Smith has been a wonderful read- er, fellow enthusiast, and friend. Lastly, my thanks to Kate Rosen, whose friendship over the past twenty years has meant more than I can say. My parents—Bennett M. Shapiro, Fredericka Foster Shapiro, Richard J. Sideman, and Jill T. Sideman—have each been a source of great wisdom and motivation. Themselves analytical thinkers, creative practitioners, and passionate readers, they have set the standard of excellence to which I aspire, and their investment in intellectual pursuits has long been my inspiration. I owe them an inexpressible debt. Finally, Eric Sanders is the reason this book has come into being. He has lived with the manuscript from conception to conclusion—in stacks on the living-room floor and in seemingly endless conversations—long enough to know its pages by heart, and he has taken countless hours away from his own writing to spend on mine. For the many readings and reread- ings, for his patience and unflagging commitment, for all these years of partnership, I thank him from the bottom of my heart. A version of chapter 3 appeared as “The Failures of the Romance: Boredom, Class and Desire in George Gissing’s The Odd Women and W. Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage,” Modern Fiction Studies 47, no.

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