Angel in the House: The Life of a Victorian Myth

The established view of the Victorian era positions women of this period as powerless captives of social morality. Nina Auerbach invites a reexamination of this stereotype and shows how a woman, rejected by the establishment, finds herself at the center of the Victorian cultural myth. The book focuses on three key images of the Victorian period: the vamp, the old maid, and the fallen woman. From John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, and John Ruskin to the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites and caricatures — the Victorian cultural imagination, despite its inclination towards science and rationality, connected female images with supernatural energy and new forms of subjectivity. The author aims to explore the myth that helped people of the Victorian era cope with the crisis of faith — a myth capable of offering modern women a past that endows them with unexpected strength.

Nina Auerbach is a distinguished professor at the University of Pennsylvania.