Mobility and Modernity in Women’s Novels, 1850s-1930s: Women Moving Dangerously

Novels by women writers from the period of the 1850s to the 1930s frequently represent women in motion, whether travelling the Continent, leaving the family home for an independent life, walking through the countryside, or simply catching the train. Examining these diverse representations of mobility, this book argues it is possible to consider women's place in modernity and the opportunities for (or limitations on) women's agency in this period. Much previous discussion of women's mobility in modernity has focused almost exclusively on women's increasing movement within urban contexts but this book widens the frame to consider the mobility of the female subject beyond the city as well in order to demonstrate the complexities of the position and agency of modern women.