Women Writing at Windsor

Women Writing at Windsor: Self, Sociability, and Space, 1780-1890 draws on current cultural criticism to historicize and theorize the space that is the Court at Windsor in the late eighteenth century. The book argues that individually and collectively the life writings of Mary Delany, Frances Burney, Caroline Herschel, and Charlotte Papendiek constitute a multi-faceted perspective on the work done to both nurture and critique the court. Close readings of their letters and autobiographical writings within contemporary political, social, and cultural contexts reveal how these women learned to negotiate both public and private spaces there to assert agency over their lives and create a sense of community.