Dimensions
163 x 243 x 32mm
For many of us, the figure of the governess leaps from the books of Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and Henry James and haunts our imaginations. For over a century, the only recourse for a young lady without income or dowry was to live in someone else's household and educate their children. As many of these women were themselves well-educated, articulate and far from home, they left a trail of letters, journals and literary productions. In Other People's Daughters, Ruth Brandon uses these sources to tell the stories of intelligent women marooned in the dreary waste of other people's lives.