British women writers were enormously influential in the creation of public opinion and political ideology during the years from 1780 to 1830. Anne K. Mellor demonstrates the many ways in which they attempted to shape British public policy and cultural behavior in the areas of religious and governmental reform, education, philanthropy, and patterns of consumption. Surveying all the genres of literature -- drama, poetry, fiction, nonfiction prose, and literary criticism -- Mellor shows how women writers promoted a new concept of the ideal woman as rationally educated, sexually self-disciplined, and, above all, virtuous. This New Woman, these writers said, was better suited to govern the nation than were its current fiscally irresponsible, lecherous, and corruptible male rulers.
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