Tabitha Kenlon has a PhD in English. Her research concentrates on representations of women and the manipulation of genre in fiction, nonfiction and drama, with a focus on eighteenth-century Britain.

“Ever wondered why listening to Fordyce’s Sermons in Pride and Prejudice made Lydia Bennet gape? In this lively and accessible look at conduct literature, Tabitha Kenlon ranges from fourteenth-century courtesy books to twenty-first-century rules. She shows how the ideal woman was constructed in the past, and questions her existence both then and now.” —Gillian Dow, Associate Professor, University of Southampton, UK

• Acknowledgements; Explanatory Note; Introduction: Woman as She Should Be; 1. A Good Woman Is a Godly Woman, Obviously; 2. Conduct for Those Who Are Not Queen; 3. Look but Don’t Talk: Reflections of the Ideal; 4. Playing the Part as Nature Intended; 5. Victoria’s Angels; 6. Suff rage, Little Wives and Career Girls; 7. Feminism Changes Everything, Right? Right??; Coda: An Ideal End; References; Index.

Tabitha Kenlon has a PhD in English. Her research concentrates on representations of women and the manipulation of genre in fiction, nonfiction and drama, with a focus on eighteenth-century Britain.

“Ever wondered why listening to Fordyce’s Sermons in Pride and Prejudice made Lydia Bennet gape? In this lively and accessible look at conduct literature, Tabitha Kenlon ranges from fourteenth-century courtesy books to twenty-first-century rules. She shows how the ideal woman was constructed in the past, and questions her existence both then and now.” —Gillian Dow, Associate Professor, University of Southampton, UK

• Acknowledgements; Explanatory Note; Introduction: Woman as She Should Be; 1. A Good Woman Is a Godly Woman, Obviously; 2. Conduct for Those Who Are Not Queen; 3. Look but Don’t Talk: Reflections of the Ideal; 4. Playing the Part as Nature Intended; 5. Victoria’s Angels; 6. Suff rage, Little Wives and Career Girls; 7. Feminism Changes Everything, Right? Right??; Coda: An Ideal End; References; Index.

Tabitha Kenlon has a PhD in English. Her research concentrates on representations of women and the manipulation of genre in fiction, nonfiction and drama, with a focus on eighteenth-century Britain.

“Ever wondered why listening to Fordyce’s Sermons in Pride and Prejudice made Lydia Bennet gape? In this lively and accessible look at conduct literature, Tabitha Kenlon ranges from fourteenth-century courtesy books to twenty-first-century rules. She shows how the ideal woman was constructed in the past, and questions her existence both then and now.” —Gillian Dow, Associate Professor, University of Southampton, UK

• Acknowledgements; Explanatory Note; Introduction: Woman as She Should Be; 1. A Good Woman Is a Godly Woman, Obviously; 2. Conduct for Those Who Are Not Queen; 3. Look but Don’t Talk: Reflections of the Ideal; 4. Playing the Part as Nature Intended; 5. Victoria’s Angels; 6. Suff rage, Little Wives and Career Girls; 7. Feminism Changes Everything, Right? Right??; Coda: An Ideal End; References; Index.