Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England

Between Women examines female relationships in Victorian England through analysis of diaries, letters, fashion magazines, and literature. The book challenges assumptions about Victorian gender roles by exploring the centrality of female bonds in middle and upper-class women's lives. Marcus investigates various relationship types between Victorian women, including romantic friendships, marriage-like partnerships, and the social networks that connected women through fashion and material culture. She draws extensively from primary sources to document how these bonds were openly celebrated and integrated into Victorian society. Women's relationships to marriage and heterosexuality are reframed through careful study of how female friendships enhanced rather than competed with traditional matrimony. The research spans intimate correspondence between Queen Victoria and her female companions to fashion plates depicting women admiring each other's dress. The work expands understanding of Victorian social and sexual norms by revealing how female homosociality was not marginal but foundational to nineteenth-century British culture. Marcus's analysis suggests new ways to interpret gender dynamics and intimacy in historical contexts.

Readers appreciate Marcus's challenge to assumptions about Victorian women's relationships and her examination of female bonds across class lines. Many note the book offers fresh perspectives on marriage, fashion magazines, and female friendship during this period. Readers liked: - Clear writing style and organization - Detailed analysis of primary sources - New interpretations of familiar texts - Balance of academic rigor and accessibility Common criticisms: - Dense academic language in some sections - Too much focus on upper/middle-class women - Some repetitive arguments - Limited discussion of working-class experiences Ratings: Goodreads: 3.9/5 (219 ratings) Amazon: 4.2/5 (12 ratings) Notable reader comments: "Brings to light aspects of Victorian culture that have been hiding in plain sight" - Goodreads reviewer "Important research but sometimes gets bogged down in theory" - Amazon reviewer "Changed how I view Victorian literature and female relationships" - LibraryThing reviewer

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🌟 Despite common assumptions about Victorian prudishness, women openly expressed passionate feelings for other women through letters, diaries, and physical affection without social stigma 📚 Queen Victoria herself maintained intense female friendships throughout her life, including a particularly close relationship with her Lady of the Bedchamber, Jane Spencer 💑 Marriage and female friendship were not seen as competing relationships in Victorian England - in fact, having close female friends often made a woman more attractive as a potential wife 📖 Fashion magazines of the Victorian era regularly featured women gazing admiringly at other women's bodies and clothing, creating a culturally accepted form of female-female desire 🎓 Sharon Marcus developed this groundbreaking work while teaching at UC Berkeley, where she had access to extensive archives of Victorian women's private correspondence and diaries