Dissertation-REVISED for Submission.Mellel

fashionable. Ultimately, I argue that Julia Wedgwood’s moral approach to literature represents a sophisticated critical response to some of the most contentious debates of the Victorian era.

e Boundaries of Science

Julia Wedgwood’s family connections and upbringing seem to have guaranteed her a nuanced perspective on the debate between moral and scientific knowledge. Charles Darwin was her second cousin on her father’s side, as well as her uncle by marriage (Darwin married

Wedgwood’s paternal aunt Emma). Her father, Hensleigh Wedgwood, was a renowned philologist who had, according to family biographers, “dismissed the absolute authority of the

Bible and had developed an interest in spiritualism.”10 Julia’s mother, Frances Mackintosh

Wedgwood, was the daughter of Sir James Mackintosh, the Liberal MP who had debated the

French Revolution with Burke. She hosted salons at which Julia was surrounded by many of the greatest theological, scientific, and literary minds of the time, including Alfred Tennyson,

John Ruskin, omas Carlyle, William ackeray, and, of course, Browning. And through her mother’s connections, Julia Wedgwood had the opportunity to attend Harriet Martineau’s school, serve as Elizabeth Gaskell’s secretary and research assistant, and develop a close friendship with Florence Nightingale. e Wedgwoods’ connections also made it possible for

Julia to spend long visits at the homes of the religious leaders Frederick Denison Maurice and

omas Erskine. Such diverse influences surely contributed to Julia Wedgwood’s intellectualism and her ability to consider multiple and conflicting positions. Indeed, it was

10. Wedgwood and Wedgwood, e Wedgwood Circle, 247.

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