LITERATURE QUESTIONS
THE VICTORIAN NOVEL
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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not a popular genre until the very end of the 19th century, long after governesses were no longer employed in the average household.
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only written before 1840, and only by women who had never been governesses themselves, but who romanced the genre and made it more appealing.
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more often written by men than women.
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connected with the 19th-century anxiety concerning middle-class female employment in general, and governess work in particular.
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Detailed explanation-1: -The governess was one of the most familiar figures in mid-Victorian life and literature. The 1851 Census revealed that 25, 000 women earned their living teaching and caring for other women’s children. Most governesses lived with their employers and were paid a small salary on top of their board and lodging.
Detailed explanation-2: -A governess is a women employed in a private household to educate pupils (usually girls) in a range of “accomplishments” ranging from reading to drawing. Governesses became increasing popular through the Victorian era for both the Upper and Middle-classes.
Detailed explanation-3: -A governess novel features a governess heroine-not necessarily a faultless or particularly splendid character, but a protagonist on whom the narrative is centred and with whom the reader’s sympathy lies. Some novels contain several governesses, whose situations are compared or juxtaposed.
Detailed explanation-4: -One of the aims of sensation fiction was to surprise and trouble readers by challenging social conventions, but another Victorian genre, melodrama, achieved popularity by upholding popular values.