Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, September 22nd, 1996
Charlotte M. Yonge's didactic novel 'The Clever Woman of the Family' uses several, disparate literary conventions to promote her aim which is to teach young women antifeminist, patriarchal Anglican values. Although the plot is highly improbable because she used sudden death and equally sudden recovery from near-death as punishment/reward devises, her characters are wholly believable through her detailing. Thus the novel works on two levels: as a set of psychological portraits and a story with an overt moral value. The former successfully reinforces the latter.
In the domestic fiction of Charl...
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