Women, Literature, and the Domesticated Landscape : England's Disciples of Flora, 1780–1870

This book combines an analysis of literature and art, women's history and culture, and real and conceptual gardens as it reconsiders the role of the garden in educational, aesthetic, and political debates from 1780 to 1870. Written in a lively and engaging style and amply illustrated.

Combining an analysis of literature and art, this book contends that the 'domesticated landscape' is key to understanding women's complex negotiation of private and public life in a period of revolution and transition. As more women became engaged in horticultural and botanical pursuits, the meaning of gardens - recognized here both as sites of pleasure and labor, and as conceptual and symbolic spaces - became more complex. Women writers and artists often used gardens to educate their readers, to enter into political and cultural debates, and to signal moments of intellectual and spiritual insight. Gardens functioned as a protected vantage point for women, providing them with a new language and authority to negotiate between domestic space and the larger world. Although this more expansive form of domesticity still highlighted the virtues associated with the feminized home, it also promised a wider field of action, re-centering domesticity outward.