The Match Girl and the Heiress

Winner of the 2015 NAVSA Best book of the Year Award, North American Victorian Studies Association Winner of the 2015 Stansky Prize, North American Conference on British Studies One of HistoryBuff.com's 10 Can't-Miss History Books of 2015 "In The Match Girl and the Heiress, inspired by a cache of private writings that reveal a profound relationship between two women activists, [Koven] delves deep into the historical record to build an intriguing story of cross-class devotion--between the social reformer Muriel Lester and 'a half-orphaned Cockney' factory worker named Nellie Dowell."--Nina Burleigh, New York Times Book Review "[F]ascinating... The great virtue of Koven's approach is his constant probing of surfaces. He is never content simply to mention a school, a hospital, a factory, without examining the policies or commercial pressures, the attitudes of the public, the actual daily round and the experience of those who lived or worked there, asking what it felt like, emotionally and physically... [This] imaginative book, at once an immaculate social and religious history and an intriguing exercise in life-writing, gives both the heiress and the match girl their due."--Jenny Uglow, New York Review of Books "[M]eticulously researched."--Caroline Moorhead, Times Literary Supplement "Rutgers University historian Koven (Slumming) has fashioned a scholarly yet highly readable jewel that tackles the big issues of early-20th-century England in an intimate way. Through the lives of Muriel Lester and Nellie Dowell, he brilliantly illuminates the growth of global capitalism, a revolutionary 'God is love' Christian theology, war and pacifism, feminism and sexuality, and class and gender relations."--Publishers Weekly, starred review "Koven demonstrates how these women changed the world's attitude toward the poor."--Kirkus "Koven's book sets Nellie and Muriel's relationship in the context of the religion and politics of their era... [T]he most memorable parts are about the unique relationship between these two women. It also serves as a timely reminder of how cruel life was for the poor when there was no welfare state to act as a safety net."--Rachel Trethewey, Independent "Koven's book sensitively uses a personal relationship to examine both the hopes and the failures of the attempts to cross class boundaries at a time and place where they ruled supreme."--Margaret Quamme, Columbus Dispatch "The Match Girl and the Heiress is a tale of two intertwined lives, but it is also a story of many places, thoughtfully and richly realized... At the heart of this excellent work is an engrossing, sensitive, and thoughtful story of history, theology, politics, and genuine love."--James Norton, Christian Science Monitor "Seth Koven's new book is a bold, brilliant and deeply moving account of [Lester's and Dowell's] contrasting lives... It is Koven's evident admiration for the imagination and conviction involved in the struggle to live ethically that makes this book such a terrific read."--Nadia Valman, Times Higher Education "Seth Coven who has poured considerable research into this work, has given us much food for thought... The Match Girl And The Heiress deserves a thorough read and is both entertaining and thought-provoking."--Clare O'Beara, Fresh Fiction "Remarkable reading... Muriel and Nellie shine through the pages of The Match Girl and the Heiress."--John Rennie, East End Life "Koven's book is finely researched and detailed as it traces the cross?fertilisation of nonconformist religious movements with those of the early socialist, pacifist and suffragette elements of East London's political radicalism."--The New English Landscape "[An] impressive work of painstaking and imaginative scholarship... Rich, critical, and warm-hearted, T

Seth Koven is professor of history at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He is the author of Slumming: Sexual and Social Politics in Victorian London (Princeton).

Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 CHAPTER ONE Victorian Childhoods and Two Victorian Children 21 The Education of Nellie Dowell 23 The Apprenticeship of Muriel Lester 57 Conclusions: The Challenges of Unlearning 75 CHAPTER TWO Capitalism, from Below and Down Under: The Global Traffic in Matches and Match Girls 77 The Work of the Match Girl in Victorian Culture 79 How Match Factory Women Became Match Girls 85 Match Girls' Militant: Why the Bell's Match Factory Strike of 1893/94 Failed 95 Metropolitan Match Girls Abroad: Immoral Circulations of Matches and Match Girls 104 Conclusions 130 CHAPTER THREE "Being a Christian" in Edwardian Britain 135 "God Is Love" 137 Foundational Fables, Ethical Awakening 154 God's Empire 171 From Paupers to Citizens 177 Conclusions 181 CHAPTER FOUR Body Biographies in War and Peace 184 Taking Nellie's Temperature 186 Narrating Nellie 190 "You don't look near so well really" 201 Muriel Lester's Spiritual Therapeutics 212 Bodies at War 219 Grammars of Difference, Erotics of Illness in Nellie's Letters to Muriel 226 "Why it is I don't know" 237 Conclusions: Dialects for the Heart 252 CHAPTER FIVE Love and Christian Revolution 256 Henry Lester's Gift 261 Feminisms at War 274 Reconciliation and Christian Revolution 288 "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you" 301 Telling the Truth, Becoming an Heiress 315 Conclusions 328 Afterlives 330 Manuscript Sources 353 Notes 357 Index 435