The Gentleman's Daughter Women's Lives in Georgian England Amanda Vickery

Eighteenth-century women have long been presented as the heroines of traditional biographies, or as the faceless victims of vast historical processes, but rarely have they been deemed worthy of rigorous historical enquiry. Based on a close examination of letters, diaries and account books, this study offers an insight into the intimate and everyday lives of genteel women and transforms our understanding of the position of women in this period.

Read more about Amanda Vickery, Professor of Early Modern History, Queen Mary, University of London. Winner of the Whitfield prize, the Wolfson prize and the Longman-History Today prize. Also, read what the author has to say about the book in an article for her University website -  Unveiling the Mysteries of English Private Life.

"A unique and fascinating picture of a neglected group."—Hannah Barker, British Journal of 18th Century Studies

"A lively and engrossing, sometimes funny study of 18th century genteel women. Serious history is rarely this much fun."—Financial Times

"This scholarly, self-assured work is both a major contribution to the study of women in eighteenth-century England and a delight to read."—Jeremy Black, History Today

"The Gentleman’s Daughter is written with charm and suffused with wry commentary that testifies to Vickery’s intimacy with her subjects. It is both an academic triumph and a spell-binding read."—Julie Wheelwright, Independent

"Innovative, expertly researched and luminous in style."—Linda Colley, London Review of Books

"Based on a wonderfully rich trove of period documents (including 66 illustrations) Vickery’s analysis is both rigorous and readable."—Publishers Weekly

"It is an engrossing book. At one level it can be enjoyed for the vivid social detail that it purveys—the absolute stuff of history."—Antonia Fraser, Sunday Times

"Come up with the idea that women were marginalized (in almost any century since the Middle ages) and historians can then ignore them. Amanda Vickery refuses to follow grand generalizations . . . and uses letters, diaries and account books of more than 100 women to let them speak about their lives for themselves. The result will please the academic who wants a good argument and the general reader who will enjoy a read that wittily shows women living within the bounds of a propriety which turn out to be less restricting than has been thought until now."—Desmond Christy, The Guardian

"A graphic, voice-filled study of Lancashire gentry."—The Observer