Governess

March 3, 2008
Before publishing her feminist manifesto, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,
in 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft spent less than a year as a governess for an aristocratic Irish family, where she socialized with her employers, entranced her pupils and bewitched and unsettled her mistress. Her less gifted sisters spent much of their miserable adult lives as governesses in a variety of positions at the mercy of an uncertain market. Freethinker Claire Clairmont endured a hideous breakup with her lover, Lord Byron, and the death of their toddler daughter before spending 20 financially precarious but not altogether unpleasant years as a governess. Brandon offers plenty of absorbing nuggets about the travails of governesses, particularly among the insecure English middle classes who sought to imitate aristocratic lifestyles. But as Brandon (The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini
) acknowledges, her subjects (who also include, among others, Anna Leonowens, who inspired The King and I
) are exceptional rather than representative of the average 19th-century unmarried woman compelled to spend a lifetime in service. And much in these well-written biographical sketches is far outside the boundaries of the women's experiences as governesses. Illus.

April 15, 2008
Brandon ("The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini") presents a poignant portrait of governesses in 18th- and 19th-century England. Using letters, journals, and other writings of the time, she sheds light on the female circumstance by showing how these women, some of whom eventually became famous, lived and wrote about their solitary lives in the employment of wealthy families. Unlike the romanticized, fictional representations found in such works as Charlotte Bront's "Jane Eyre", the reality for governesses was often a lonely and isolated life. Brandon focuses on six women: Agnes Porter, Mary Wollstonecraft, Claire Clairmont, Nelly Weeton, Anna Leonowens, and Anna Jameson. As a biographer, she provides brilliantly detailed backgrounds on her subjects, leaving the reader wanting still more. However, Brandon loses touch slightly with the specifics on governesses; she could have done a better job in providing more focus on the profession itself and its employees. She does succeed in creating a very interesting look into the struggle to create parity between the sexes in this era, especially regarding education. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.Susanne Markgren, SUNY at Purchase Lib.

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