The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-2017 "Her Splendid Children Will Be Born Here”: Anglo-American Relations and Sexual Selection in Transatlantic Fiction, 1870–1914 Jennifer Lynn Robertson University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons, and the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Robertson, Jennifer Lynn, ""Her Splendid Children Will Be Born Here”: Anglo-American Relations and Sexual Selection in Transatlantic Fiction, 1870–1914" (2017). Dissertations. 1386. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/1386 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “HER SPLENDID CHILDREN WILL BE BORN HERE”: ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS AND SEXUAL SELECTION IN TRANSATLANTIC FICTION, 1870–1914 by Jennifer Lynn Robertson A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School and the Department of English at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: ________________________________________________ Dr. Ellen M. Weinauer, Committee Chair Associate Professor, English ________________________________________________ Dr. Nicolle M. Jordan, Committee Member Associate Professor, English ________________________________________________ Dr. Jameela Lares, Committee Member Professor, English ________________________________________________ Dr. Alexandra R. Valint, Committee Member Assistant Professor, English ________________________________________________ Dr. Karen S. Coats Dean of the Graduate School May 2017 COPYRIGHT BY Jennifer Lynn Robertson 2017 Published by the Graduate School ABSTRACT “HER SPLENDID CHILDREN WILL BE BORN HERE”: ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS AND SEXUAL SELECTION IN TRANSATLANTIC FICTION, 1870–1914 by Jennifer Lynn Robertson May 2017 In recent decades, scholars have sought to examine the discourse of evolutionary theory in the realist novel. This dissertation examines the ways in which the novel form embodied evolutionary theory by examining Anglo-American courtship plots. In chapter 2, I examine Charles Glascock’s courtship of Caroline Spalding in Anthony Trollope’s He Knew He Was Right. During their courtship, Caroline’s dominant behaviors subvert traditional hierarchies between nations, classes, and genders. However, the open plot of evolutionary change hints at a revolutionary restructuring of social relations. I argue that Caroline and Glascock’s relationship reverts to a more traditional power structure upon their marriage, an ending that resolves social instability. In chapter 3, I examine the two Anglo-American marriages in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Shuttle. This text uses the language of evolution, degeneration, and eugenics to interpret two Anglo-American marriages. While critics have demonstrated the importance of rational choice in New Women fiction and eugenic marriage plots around the turn of the century, I argue that Burnett’s novel highlights the limitations of knowledge and rational choice in mate selection. Burnett’s novel suggests the importance of relying on instinctive female sexual desire for mate selection. While the novel advocates for a shift to more equitable sexual relations within the marriage, it does so by reverting to traditional class and racial hierarchies to achieve social stability. For the last two chapters, I examine failed courtships and marriages between Anglo-American lovers. In chapter 4, I study the failed courtship between Paul Montague and the American Mrs. Hurtle in Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now. The text relies on theories of individual sexual development to explain Montague’s selection of the civilized British Hetta Carbury over the savage American Mrs. Hurtle. However, Montague’s individual evolution fails to account for the larger societal development caused by the entry of Americans into England. Critics have noted the lack of narrative resolution, and I argue that this failure is due in part to the failed Anglo-American romance as the marriage between two British subjects fails to arrest the social and political changes in the novel. In the final chapter, I examine Isabel Archer’s process of mate selection in Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady. James is credited with the creation of the American girl and the popularization of international marriages in fiction, and critics have examined the language of evolutionary psychology in Isabel’s choice of mate. I argue that James’s novel critiques the closed plots of women’s individual development in both science and literature. Instead, the novel creates an open plot in which Isabel can continue to change beyond the novel’s end. Overall, these transatlantic texts demonstrate the ways in which evolutionary plots bring bout, complicate, or resist romantic resolutions in literary texts. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank those members of my writing group who contributed thoughtful feedback on early chapter drafts: Dr. Paige Gray, Dr. Laura Hakala, Dr. Kara Manning, and Dr. Jeffrey Pusch. Special thanks to my dissertation committee members who mentored me through the writing process: Dr. Nicolle Jordan, Dr. Jameela Lares, and Dr. Alexandra Valint. My eternal gratitude to my committee chair Dr. Ellen Weinauer, whose patience and support made this project possible. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER II – “IN MY OWN HOUSE I AM MASTER”: REVERTING TO THE MARRIAGE PLOT IN TROLLOPE’S HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT .............................. 27 “Not the Less Manifestly a Lady”: Caroline Spalding and American Evolution ......... 34 Charles Glascock and England’s “Gouty Toes” ........................................................... 52 “In My Own House I am Master”: Reverting to the Marriage Plot .............................. 65 CHAPTER III - “HER SPLENDID CHILDREN WILL BE BORN HERE”: SEXUAL SELECTION AND THE ANGLO-AMERICAN CHILD IN FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT’S THE SHUTTLE .......................................................................................... 71 “The Old Cruel Dominance of the Man Over the Woman”: Critiquing Male Selection ....................................................................................................................................... 82 A “Mentality by No Means Ordinary”: Bettina’s Power of Selection .......................... 88 “He Would Have Looked Well in a Coat of Mail”: Bettina’s Sexual Selection .......... 95 “Her Splendid Children Will Be Born Here”: The Anglo-Saxon Marriage Plot ........ 102 CHAPTER IV – “INTO ALIGNMENT WITH THE LAWS OF LOVE”: SEXUAL AND ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE WAY WE LIVE NOW ........................................ 111 vi “The History of Civilisation is the History of Advance in Monogamy”: Evolution’s Closed Plots ................................................................................................................ 116 Mrs. Hurtle “Might Never Have Had a Husband,—Might at this Moment have Two or Three”: Threats to the Marriage Plot .......................................................................... 126 “Real Virtue Requires Enemies”: Paul’s Ethical Development ................................. 142 “You Will Have to Be Squire of Carbury”: Evolving the Marriage Plot ................... 152 CHAPTER V – “THE INFINITE VISTA OF A MULTIPLIED LIFE”: THE END OF COURTSHIP IN HENRY JAMES’S THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY............................. 161 “She is the Sex Sacrificed to Reproductive Necessities”: Women’s Development in Science and Literature................................................................................................. 164 “He Might Have Ridden on a Plunging Steed”: Sexual Selection in The Portrait of a Lady............................................................................................................................. 172 “She Wished to Be Satisfied”: Sexual Selection After Marriage ............................... 181 “The Infinite Vista of a Multiplied Life” .................................................................... 189 WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................. 201 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. The divergence of taxa. ..................................................................................... 16 Figure 2. The evolution of humans. .................................................................................. 17 viii CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION As historians have documented, there were an unprecedented number of transatlantic marriages between wealthy American heiresses and the impoverished British gentry from 1870–1914.1 These “dollar princesses” enacted transnational migrations in the hopes of giving titles to their nouveau riche families, while the British