My love to war is going: Women and Song in the Napoleonic Era

Research output: Contributions to books, editions, reports or conference proceedingsChapterpeer-review

Bibliographic note

Middling-rank Georgian women were encouraged to be polite, genteel and accomplished in their ornaments, namely piano playing and singing. For long enough, our perception – perhaps influenced by period novels and popular dramatizations – has been that women’s engagement in political debate concerning the naval battles that surged on the seas, and even composing one’s own music were very much discouraged. And yet a closer investigation of the evidence reveals a very different picture indeed. From the instructional materials that formed part of the well-bred young woman’s education, to the contemporary evidence in the shape of the diaries belonging to two well-educated sisters from St Andrews in Scotland, not to mention an examination of some of the music that young women sang and also composed, we are able to construct a much more accurate picture of a middling-ranked woman’s reaction to the times in which she lived.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTrafalgar Chronicle
Subtitle of host publicationNew Series 3
Pages202
Number of pages212
Publication statusPublished or Performed - Nov 2018

Publication series

NameTrafalgar Chronicle