Covert, James T.

About the author: Dr. Covert received his PhD in History from the University of Oregon. He is currently Professor of History, Emeritus, University of Portland.

Victorian Family as Seen Through the Letters of Louise Creighton to Her Mother: 1872-1880. Edited and with an Introduction

1998 0-7734-8500-7
This collection of 161 letters provides a unique window into the intimate inner workings of a particular upper-middle-class Victorian household. The first letter was written on January 10, 1872 during Louise's honeymoon in Paris, and the last on November 30, 1880 just a few weeks before her mother's death. Louise Creighton was not only the wife and biographer of her famous husband, Bishop Mandell Creighton, but she has emerged as a moderate Christian feminist in an era when women's causes seemed to be generally articulated by more militant voices. The letters also reveal much about the academic and social life in Oxford and later in a quaint village in Northumberland where Louise records her duties as a vicar's wife. Other fascinating sections in her letters are the descriptions of managing her household of servants (cook, gardener, nurse, governess, maids and groom), shopping, planning her garden - the more impressive when remembering that during this period she was in her twenties. Both she and her husband wrote books, traveled frequently to the continent, entertained widely, and engaged in social life with the local gentry and county nobility. With illustrations.