The Clever Woman of the Family (Broadview Literary Texts)
“The Clever Woman of the Family, the fascinating if infuriating novel by that immensely readable but too often neglected writer, Charlotte Mary Yonge, explores acceptable forms of feminine activity in a post-'Indian Mutiny' setting, combining traditionalist polemics with a narrative that suggests the complexities of responses to gender and empire in the mid-1860s. I am delighted to see that this important text is now accessible in an excellent edition by Clare A. Simmons. Simmons's welcome new addition to the Broadview Literary Texts series has a helpful introduction, ample footnotes, and—best of all—illuminating appendices that include well-chosen and instructive extracts from mid-Victorian discussions of the Surplus Women debate, responses to the Sepoy Rebellion, documents of the Oxford Movement, and discussions of the contemporary ‘Clever Women.'" - June Sturrock, Simon Fraser University