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Emily Bathurst; or, at Home and Abroad

Context

Context

Bathurst is distinct from many fictional stories of New Zealand during this period due to its preoccupation with instructive, factual information and its minimalist plot. These distinctions suggest that is was meant to serve as a ‘respectable’ novel. Although the authority on moral instruction in British society had traditionally rested with men, the rise of the didactic, ‘respectable’ novel during the 1830s and ‘40s was closely associated with the maternal wisdom of female authors (James 5). This format’s use of fictionalised circumstances to teach important moral lessons “became a potent force shaping the ways of life and ethos of the new middle classes in the Victorian period” (5). The authorship of this format was closely associated with a conservative, devout subset of the middle-class whose members are not generally thought of in connection to the increasing number of politicised women in the nineteenth century. However, periodicals produced by this group, such as the Christian Lady’s Magazine (1834-49) or the Mother’s Friend (1848-59), “were important for encouraging women’s social activism and intervention on behalf of the poor”, as befitted a good Christian woman (Easley 61). Although this encouragement might appear liberal, “these magazines also tended to reinforce the women’s conventional role as keepers of the domestic hearth” (61). Following the precedent set by the late eighteenth-century religious writers and philanthropists Hannah More and Sarah Trimmer, women also became “closely associated with evangelical popular literature movements” (66). These movements generally published family periodicals directed at middle and working-class women, which were “designed to promote rational motherhood and Christian values” (66). Although the Victorian period saw an increase in the presence of the female voice in print and literature, in traditional circles, this voice was still largely limited to issues of religion and family. Despite their close association with print formats, the attitudes and style of Bathurst connects its author to the devout subset of the middle-class associated with the ‘respectable’ novel.

Although the author’s pseudonym makes it impossible to know exactly who she was, it does reveal important information about her character and the themes she uses her novel to promote. The author’s decision to refer to herself as merely “Wife of a Clergyman” exemplifies the contemporary notion that a wife “existed only as an extension of her husband” (Harris 230). This concept was not merely cultural, but reinforced by laws which prohibited married women from earning money, owning property or voting (230). Although nineteenth-century women had a greater voice in the public sphere than their predecessors, this did not mean that they had escaped from their subordinate position to men, or even that many desired or sought to do so. Alexis Easley explains that many female authors chose to publish anonymously as it “provided women with effective cover for exploring a variety of conventionally ‘masculine’ social issues” (1). Moreover, it allowed them to avoid “essentialized notions of ‘feminine’ voice and identity” (1). However, Bathurst’s author clearly takes the opposite approach. Choosing to be known as a “wife”, and more specifically, as the wife of a “Clergyman”, suggests that tradition and religion were important to the author; so much so that she considered them the only part of her identity that her readership needed know. Both her title and motives for writing, to “induce any young person” to question whether they are “striving to fulfil the ends for which [they were] sent into the world’", also suggest that her work was intended to reinforce specifically Christian moral codes of conduct (180). The respectability of her Christian advice is implied by the fact that she was published by B. Wertheim, Aldine Chambers, Paternoster-row. Wertheim was an English Publisher advertised in the Ecclesiastical Gazette whose titles included Parting Words to a Little Flock by a Clergyman, Justification by Faith, The Hearers of the Word, and The Family Preacher amongst others (“Parting Words”, “Books” 30).

Not only her position as the wife of a clergyman, but even her choice of genre, suggests the author’s class, and that of the audience she wrote for. That Bathurstexemplifies the instructional format of the ‘respectable’ novel, suggests that the author belonged to the devout subset of the middle-class generally associated with this form. Her similarly instructive novels, A Book for Young Women and A Book for Wives and Mothers, emphasise this point (The Wife Title Page). The character and class of her target audience is suggested by the manner and lifestyle of her characters and her dedication of the novel to “a large and influential class of the community” in her preface. The wealth of her intended audience is suggested by her character’s estimation of how much money is necessary to live comfortably. When talking of a disadvantageous marriage, Mrs Bathurst’s friend describes “a captain's pay in India, with a staff appointment” as at least “not positive penury” (144). Similarly, she judges that “if [the bride’s] father allows her only two or three hundred a-year, though her position in life will be very different from what she once expected, she will accommodate herself to circumstances, and be very happy” (144). The Bank of England estimates that 200 pounds in 1847 translates to 20,381 pounds in 2018 or $39,000 NZD (Inflation Calculator, NZD per 1 GBP). It is difficult to find exact information on a British captain’s pay in India in 1847. However, a rough estimation places it at approximately 10,500 NZD a month1. That the bride’s competence combined with a captain’s pay is a lowering of the bride’s circumstances, places these characters, at minimum, in the upper-middle class. Their association with a member of the landed gentry, Lady Mary, might place them even higher. Although this novel’s readership would not have been limited to individuals this wealthy, it can be assumed that they were of a class that could aspire to conduct themselves in a similarly respectable manner.