The Woman and the Hour: Harriet Martineau and Victorian Ideologies

Elisabeth Anne MacDonald-Murray is an assistant professor of English at
the University of Western Ontario.

Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) was one of the most prolific British
writers of the 19th century and a prominent and controversial literary
figure. Unable to teach because of her increasing deafness, Martineau
established a career as an essayist, lecturer, and novelist. Outspoken
and widely read, she was a regular contributor to a number of
influential publications—including the Edinburgh Review, London’s
Daily Mail, and Charles Dickena’s Household Words—and wrote on a
range of subjects, from divorce and prostitution to slavery and racism.
Martineau herself, recognizing the contentious nature of her writings,
observed that on five occasions in the course of her career she felt
compelled to write and publish texts that she believed could result in
her professional ruin. The context and controversies surrounding these
five texts—which, contrary to Martineau’s expectations, did not
diminish her literary appeal—are the subject of this book.

Combining a close reading of the texts with an extensive review of the
historical context, Roberts seeks to understand both the nature of the
controversies surrounding each work and the reasons behind the
inordinate amount of hostile criticism the pieces attracted. In addition
to the five texts that Martineau herself identified as her most polemic,
Roberts also considers Martineau’s two novels, Deerbrook and The Hour
and the Man, which proved to be as contentious as her nonfiction work.
Although the paucity of biographical information about Martineau may
prove to be a deterrent to some readers, Roberts’s look at this
provocative and engaging writer, who both addressed and challenged the
institutions and belief structures of her day, makes a valuable
contribution to Victorian literary studies.