Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres

by Ruth Brandon

The rise and fall of the English governess, the domestic heroine who inspired Victorian literature's greatest authors.

Between the 1780s and the end of the nineteenth century, an army of sad women took up residence in other people's homes, part and yet not part of the family, not servants, yet not equals. To become a governess, observed Jane Austen in Emma, was to retire from all the pleasures of life, of rational intercourse, equal society, peace and hope, to penance and mortification for ever. However, in an ironic paradox, the governess, so marginal to her society, was central to its fiction partly because governessing was the fate of some exceptionally talented women who later wrote novels based on their experiences. But personal experience was only one source, and writers like Wilkie Collins, William Makepeace Thackeray, Henry James, and Jane Austen all recognized that the governess's solitary figure, adrift in the world, offered more novelistic scope than did the constrained and respectable wife. Ruth Brandon weaves literary and social history with details from the lives of actual governesses, drawn from their letters and journals, to craft a rare portrait of real women whose lives were in stark contrast to the romantic tales of their fictional counterparts. Governess will resonate with the many fans of Jane Austen and the Bronte's whose novels continue to inspire films and books, as well as fans of The Nanny Diaries and other books that explore the longstanding tension between mothers and the women they hire to raise their children.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Feminism, Womens, Historical, Womens Studies

303 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5. This was an interesting read, but I'd say it's more a book with several mini biographies of women who were governesses for some of their lives more than one really focused on what it was like to be a governess.

[❀⊱RoryReads⊰❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm surprised that people found the book dull and repetitive. The only thing dull and repetitive in the book was the lives of many of the women who were forced to work as governesses. The book is certainly painful because one can practically feel the walls closing in the way these women did. It is truly horrifying what some of the family members of these women were capable of doing to them (depriving them of rightful inheritances, etc.) to say nothing of the emotional abuse and neglect of some of the families they worked for.

What Brandon is describing--the awkward social position of the governess--is what some people--borrowing from anthropologists--call "liminality." The women were in an "in between" state--neither truly middle class nor truly working class. It left them without a clear social group and hence often desperately lonely. Liminal people provoke anxiety in others who don't know how to classify them and therefore how to interact with them. How could other, more well-off, women not see a possible future in the face of their children's governess (only a bankruptcy away)? If they pushed these women away physically and emotionally, made them even more alien, perhaps it was out of an unconscious desire to push that very possibility out of their own minds.

[Lisa Mettauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before this month, I’d never heard of the Reform Firm. That was the name of a group of women in the Victorian era who fought to improve women’s education, among other feminist causes. During this time when all women were supposed to be married and the property of their husbands, those who couldn’t marry had very few choices. One of those few choices was becoming a governess. The English Woman’s Journal was founded by two members of the Reform Firm, Barbara Leigh Smith and Bessie Rayner Parkes; they were hoping to influence old legislation that prevented women from owning property after marriage and kept women and girls from attending public schools. The Journal was published by the Victoria Press, which was run by Emily Faithfull; through the journal and the press, the women were able to employ many women to prove their theories by putting them into action.

Coincidentally, the last two books I’ve read involved these interesting women. Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres, Ruth Brandon includes a chapter on the women of the Reform Firm. Actually, the book takes up with governesses much earlier. Brandon, analyzing journals, letters and literature of the time, recreates the sad lives most governesses led. She begins with Mary Wollstonecraft, author of The Vindication of the Rights of Women, who actually spent a short time as a governess before her writing career took off, and includes Claire Clairmont (Lord Byron’s mistress); Anna Leonowens, the model for The King and I, among others. Brandon shows how precarious governesses’ lives were; always at the whim of their employers, they could be fired for any reason - getting on the wrong side of the mother, for example. As the middle class grew in the Industrial Revolution, more families were able to hire governesses to educate their girls, but they didn’t have the large estates that the wealthy did. As a result, governesses were forced to live intimately with the families, causing much strife. And wages dropped to unliveable levels. The final chapter tells how the Reform Firm began to work at challenging the social mores regarding women’s education, though it was still many years before schools allowed girls in.

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue is a novel based on an illustrious divorce case in 1864. Helen Smith, British, but raised in Italy and India, captured the heart of a much older man, the Vice-Admiral Henry Codrington. They have a few good years of marriage and have two daughters. The Admiral is often away for long periods of time at sea. During one of those absences, Helen invites a good friend of the family, Emily Faithfull!! (she of the Victoria Press above), to live with her and keep her company. By the time Henry comes back Helen is tired of her husband and when the arguments ensue, Emily is asked to leave. Eventually the family is off to Malta on assignment, where Helen begins to “befriend,” if you know what I mean, a few of the officers. When the family eventually returns to London, one of the officers follows, and Helen is caught. The divorce was an incredible scandal, the trial sensational with accusations of rape and a lesbian affair. Though Emily remained a force in the feminist movement until her death, her name was always associated with the scandal.

Both books were incredibly good. Brandon writes a remarkably interesting and readable social history of a small aspect of the lives of Victorian women. Donoghue captures Victorian England so well, fitting in period details without interrupting the flow of the story. All three of her characters have been perfectly rendered; no one is the victim or the victor, each is a unique individual with a complex personality. For those as interested as I am in the Victorian age, add these to your list.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all know the stereotypes from history, politics, and culture. From Jane Eyre to The Turn of the Screw, literature abounds with the figure of the governess - quiet, shy, meek, downtrodden, neither fish nor fowl, superior to the servants but not the equal of her employers, educated and well-born but brought low usually through the financial upheavals of her male family members, forced to make her own way in the world via one of the few career paths available to unmarried women.

Ruth Brandon chronicles what might be called the rise and fall of the governess, from the late 18th century before state education when no self-respecting wealthy family would be without one, through to the establishment of the first female university college at Cambridge in the late 19th century. She tells the history through letters and diaries of familiar and perhaps less familiar figures - Agnes Porter, Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Leonowens, Anna Jameson and others. It is hard not to feel immense sympathy for these women; and, inevitably, weaving through their tales is the history of the women's movement, the slow indignant chafing against women's lot in life.

I enjoyed this book, although I felt that it was less cohesive that I would have liked. Constructing each chapter around a particular individual made it feel more like a selection of mini-biographies than a really coherent tale. It felt more like a history of eight governesses in particular than a history of the profession in general, and I'm not sure some of these women are truly representative of their sisters in bondage. So a good book, well worth reading and a valuable addition to women's history, but I can't help but feel that it missed something in the execution.

[Hannah Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book. I learned so much from this and the author arranged the book in a super interesting way. I love books that function as mini multi biographies and this book was no exception. Very well written and engaging this is a must read for anyone interested in women, education, and the role of women in society.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has the wrong title. It should be Governess: The Soap Opera Sex Lives of Women Who Were Governesses at Some Point, Although Of Course They Weren't Having Sex While They Were Governesses. Brandon has one or two points, which she reiterates several times. One of those points is that being a governess was deadly dull, and most were not allowed any social life at all. So writing about their lives? The most interesting parts are when they *weren't* working. Brandon gets a little carried away by the exciting lives of a few of her subjects (Mary Wollstonecraft, Claire Clairmont, Anna Leonowens) - and I don't blame her for that, because that was the best part of the book. But it wasn't what it purported to be.

(Now I *really* want to read a steamy historical novel about Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Godwin Shelley. Yeah, that would rawk.)

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm very interested in the topic and the ideas here, and I really liked the introductory chapter, but overall this was too research-paper to make for entretaining leisure reading. For me, it lacked that liveliness and narrative flow that makes some nonfiction titles go from informative to riveting.

[Ian Carmichael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting topic - the place of the governess told through some exmplars - some famous, some not. Interesting but unevenly written. Some chapters flowed well and were well structured. Some weren't clear as to who was being written about and to what purpose.

I'm not sorry to have read it, but it could have been so much better. Jenny Uglow might have made an excellent fist of this!

[Quinn · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a slog to get through. I felt like a TA reading a terribly dry term paper. Not much personality in Ms. Brandon's writing.

I enjoyed hearing about the lives of some famous writers, and reading about how much of The King and I was lies and exaggerations, but otherwise, the reading was not pleasant.

Sorry, but I would not read anything by Ms. Brandon again.

[Lynn Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

In depth look at women's lives in the 18th, early 19th century. Illuminating. Makes you think about all the liberties women have now.

[Margo Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well structured and organized, this book explores the lives and times of British governesses by close examination of the lives of several extraordinary women. Beginning in the late eighteenth century and ending in the mid-nineteenth century, the book chronicles changes in the social system and treatment of governesses that the rise of the middle class wrought. The large number of “excess” unmarried women (over 400,000 according to census records) and the lack of employment or social systems to support them, necessitated governessing for tens of thousands of women. And the excess of governesses meant that they could be paid low wages and treated poorly. Additionally, the rise of the middle class and closeness in social standing of employers and governesses made their working conditions even harder as employers stigmatized these women as “business failures” who had failed to find husbands. Additionally, the poor education of many governesses, and subsequent poor education of their charges, lead to even further marginalization of women during this time period. The book ends with a discussion of the early roots of feminism in Britain and improvements in women’s education that eventually lead to the end of the governess.

The women profiled in this book were extraordinary. They lead the feminist and women’s education movements and circled in highly intellectual society, but were forced to endure a profession they universally hated because there were no other options for their livelihoods. Some reviewers have criticized the book for spending as much time or more discussing the lives of these women outside of governessing, however, it is clear that that the goal of most governesses was to do anything else. And, it is rare that the lives of marginalized women are chronicled. One can only imagine how bad the lives of less extraordinary women with fewer resources open to them must have been.

The book does a very good job of blending the women’s stories with statistics and social commentary to explain how the governessing system arose, changed, and affected both society as a whole and the lives of individual women.

[Eleanore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in England under a different title: "Other People's Daughters: The Life and Times of Governesses" this work might be a key observation in an examination of different marketing trends among American and British audiences. Beyond the cover, however, it is also a very interesting and readable look at the lives of five governesses from the 18th and 19th century. Given the idiosyncrasies of the archival record, it should be no surprise that many of the figures Ms. Brandon focuses on are often famous for reasons having little to do with their relative (and occasionally merely token) experiences as governesses: Mary Wallstonecraft, Claire Clairmont- the step-sister of Mary Shelly and Lord Byron's lover, Anna Leonowens of "the King and I" fame. While these choices lend a great deal of drama and interest to the larger narrative and are, of themselves, thoroughly enjoyable, these selections come at a cost of building a more resonant image of the life of more ordinary governesses - which to be sure must have been fairly dull and prosaic - but nonetheless important for the purposes of the book. The work also concludes somewhat clumsily amidst the beginning of the women's suffrage movement and the battle to admit women to university examinations.

[Jenny Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing! I was hoping to learn about the lives of governesses, but this book turns out to be a collection of microbiographies of a few women, mostly famous for other reasons, who at some point in their lives were governesses, though much of the narrative describes the parts of their lives when they weren't.

Most egregious is the fifty-five pages devoted to the life of Claire Clairmont of which perhaps fifty pages describe her origins, her experiences living with the Shelleys, and her miserable relationship with Byron, all fascinating, but having nothing to do with governessing. Almost as an afterthought the author finally gives us a few pages about her governessing career towards the end before going off to describe her last years. The same pattern repeats elsewhere.

In the end, I didn't learn anything more about governessing from the text of this book than I learned from what the author told us in a few paragraphs in her introduction.

[Anika · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book both succeeded and failed for me. As a collection of mini-biographies of a variety of fascinating women, it absolutely succeeds - the narrative is one of the most engaging and consistently interesting I've ever read for a book of this kind, and makes me want to seek out the author's other biographies. And the historical information and contexts are interesting. And yet, as a real study of the idea of the governess, the socio-political and gendered (ooh, my college essay-writing self comes back) implications therein, she never really delves much below the surface. Still, definitely interesting and entertaining.

[Cynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Series of biographies of governess especially and women who fought for equal education in order to be able to finacially upport themselves and to live withere the same business world dignity of men. I found the chapters easy to read, but the whole of the book slightly confusing. I believe Ruth Brandon tried to tie the history of 19th-century governess and of the social-legal-education complexities that made the governesses' difficulties. Brandon does show what being a woman and being a governess was like in the 19th-century and how women were able to find other economic opportunities.
Worth a re-read.

[Rebecca Huston · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at what has become a historical romance standby -- the governess. Very interesting, but not as complete as I would have liked it to have been. Still, it's worth reading.

For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.mylot.com/post/3023887/rev...

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any romantic notions of earlier times? If you were an unmarried lady between the ages of 20-40, you'd be working as a governess and no longer a lady because ladies didn't work. I'm dizzy. And fascinated. What about after 40? You don't want to know.

[Nightwitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

As others have mentioned, this is not so much a book about governesses as a collection of biographies of women, some of whom (not all of whom, even) worked as governesses at some point in their lives. Brandon doesn’t seem to like many of her subjects much - in the chapters on the Wollstonecraft family she veers through all the various sisters kind of at random, and I got the sense she wanted to be writing a biography of Mary rather than any of the others.

She also just doesn’t seem to like them. When Mary Wollstonecraft extracts her sister from her recent marriage (and baby), Brandon confidently tells us that the only conceivable explanation is that Mary had lost her mind (!). Really? Really? Because I can think of half-a-dozen other explanations off the top of my head, most of which are far less derogatory towards Mary and frankly make a lot more sense to me - but Brandon just gives her explanation and moves on. Similarly Anna Jameson’s alcoholic, depressed husband complained that if he hadn’t been stuck with Anna he could have married a nice young girl, which Brandon records sympathetically - the implication is that he was alcoholic and depressed because he was stuck with an absentee wife, whereas I would argue a case could be made that part of the reason he had an absentee wife was because he was a depressive alcoholic. Anna Leonowens is described pretty unsympathetically, and while she was indeed probably a pretty unpleasant person in many ways, it’s just weird to be reading a biography where the biographer doesn’t seem to want to be writing about her subjects and doesn’t seem to like them very much.

The final chapter, on various Victorian feminists, just had too many characters to cover them adequately, and once again Brandon passes judgment on them in ways that could have used more explanation, for example wondering what Person A "made" of Person B's letter to Person C while not ever telling us if Person A was actually given access to said letter. Brandon’s good at synthesizing information and producing brief readable biographies, but in my two-book experience of her biographies, she doesn't necessarily pick subjects she actually wants to write about and about which she's able to find enough information.

[Elisa Fierro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is well written and researched, engaging and very informative. I had a special interest, being a Brontë lover, but I feel I can recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in the Victorian Era, Women's History or general History. The author describes the life of several governesses, some of them famous, like Mary Wollstonecraft or Claire Clairmont, others less known. The chapter I found most interesting was the one about Nelly Weeton, an obscure lady whose sad story came to be known by merest chance: her diary was found by an historian while browsing in a second-hand book store in a small village in England.
"Governesses" describes the plight of a category of women who, unable to marry and with extremely limited financial means, were obliged to work for people who mostly mistreated and underpaid them, and who often ended their life destitute because swindled by family or friends. Heartbreaking, really, some chapters brought tears to my eyes. Even marriage, that in Victorian England meant civil death for women, was considered much better than toiling with unruly children and disrespectful employers.
The book offers, however, also a wide view of the complex web of social conventions and perceptions of the time, especially concerning the role of women and the theme of their education.
Dr. Brandon managed to write an excellent history book that reads like a novel and that is actually accessible to everyone. Personally, I find that a great achievement and plan on reading more by the same author.

[Michael Dean Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subtitle frames the theme of “Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres,” more effectively than the idea of governessing. The introduction leads readers to expect a more narrow focus. Perhaps I erred in my interpretation?

Yet, the broader theme of the social and economic condition of middle-class women from 1780 into the 1860s, forms the main focus for this detailed study. The extensive bibliography reveals considerable thought by Ruth Brandon, as she gathered a diverse array of source materials to be able to distill useful accounts about specific women in England during this period. Well done.

The initial material about Mary Wollstonecraft and her two sisters seemed to long, but in doing so, I was well prepared for the style Brandon used in her study of governesses, with strong emphasis on her social situation and life conditions that drove so many to become a governess.

I do recommend “Governess” to anyone who things that they understand the struggles of working women during an age when work itself was deemed unworthy by “Society.”

I will return to my review after giving it more thought, so watch for updates and edits. :)

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book. A governess led a pretty much mind numbing existence. She was not a member of the family’s society, but not part of the servant part of the household either. Minuscule pay, which they often shared with brothers that thought they deserved their money. Women were subservient to men whether family or bosses. Very few actual diaries or papers of run of the mill governesses have survived. Who would care what these drudges thought? The information in this book was available because a few famous women, like the mother of Lord Byron’s child, turned to being a governess, when destitute. The book had a lot of factual information about the movement in England to have women become actual people.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting (but often pretty bleak) examination of the lives of nineteenth century governesses. Each chapter follows a different woman, some famous like Claire Clairmont (Byron's lover) and others obscure. This is a pretty harrowing read, as a lot of the women suffered immensely at the hands of cruel employers, brothers and husbands. What I really enjoyed was how courageous many of these women were, travelling to foreign countries, leaving abusive homes and denying themselves anything except the bare essentials so as to be able to help their relations and other dependents. A deeply emotional and immersive read.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings on this one. Two or three of the chapters are less about governesses and more the biographies of the women. And it would have made more sense to divide the book by concept as opposed to individual -- the evolution of attitudes toward formal education for women, the effects of capitalism on the demand for governesses, the contrast between attitudes toward governesses at home versus abroad.

Having said that, it's a remarkably detailed book about a niche subject. And a few of the women led fascinating lives for the times.

[Wendy Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some chapters are more interesting than others. An occasionally fascinating social history of women's position in (mostly) 19th C society; not really just about governesses per se. Really enjoyed the Mary Wollstonecraft, Claire Clairmont & Nelly Weeton sections.

[Ceri and Rumaysa Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating

A thoroughly researched exploration of the lives of some of the more famous governesses of the 18th & 19th centuries. Well written and exhaustive.

[Naima Haviland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, the Bronte sisters -- all 19th century stories pitting a determined heroine against the social perils of her day. A lot of those heroines are governesses, so I was very keen to read read Ruth Brandon's nonfiction account of the lives of actual governesses. One thing Brandon relates right off is that existing material on governesses is scarce. Governesses were plentiful but peripheral figures in 18th/19th century life. It was a migrant-worker position -- an underpaid,underappreciated job where they got little respect and no benefits. There weren't any other jobs for unmarried women, so the system just perpetuated itself. The writings of governesses weren't preserved unless they were extraordinary for other reasons. Each chapter of 'Governesses' focuses on one of these extraordinary women who must represent thousands of women whom history forgot.

The women in 'Governesses' include Mary Wollstonecraft (a famous 18th century feminist author and mother of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein), Claire Clairmont (best known for being Lord Byron's discarded mistress and for a time an insider in his mega-famous crowd), Anna Leonowens (who wrote the book on which Anna and The King of Siam was based), and the feminist reformers who achieved the start of equal education for women and helped end the governess system. My favorite chapter covered Nelly Weeton, a forgotten figure whose letters were found 100 years later in a junk shop and published. Her 'unextraordinary' life is full of sadness, fear, strength, determination, love, and sheer survival.

I liked this book, but I'm struck not just by how much times have changed for women but how recently they've changed. Personal example: it was 1969, Pittsburg, PA. My first grade teacher introduced our class to a school visitor. "She's a doctor!" our teacher said. It was like a martian dropped into our midst. We just stared at her in silence. I can't tell you how weird that moment felt. Women weren't doctors!

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up Governess because of the title. I have been a fan of Jane Eyre since my freshman year of high school, and have enjoyed enough the novels that feature a governess as the heroine, enough to be intrigued by the real lives of the women who worked the lonely job as a governess.

Brandon uses the memoirs and personal letters of the few governesses that were made famous by their associations, their affairs and their own publications, and drew from their lives what may have been the standard life of a governess. Offering itself as a collection of short biographies, this books is much less and much more than what the title suggests.

It was not, at all, what I expected and did not feature the lives of governesses as a research paper. Instead, it offered much more on demonstrating how becoming a governess was one of the only means of providing an income in a man's world and was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a desirable place to be. It is then shown, that the women who were governesses and were in place to become governesses became the forefront of the woman's movement. These are women who saw from their desperate positions a life they could not obtain because of the way society dictated their station, and as generations passed, they evolved into women ready to stand and fight for equality.

I enjoyed this book and the personal quotes from the diaries and letters of the women. It is a wonderful collection of inspiring women, and women that you just feel for.

[Felicity Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

An insightful though somewhat dry and occasionally too political insight into the lives of the governess from its conception to downfall. Other People's Daughters chronicles several real life English governesses (and others who, though not actually governesses themselves, were involved in the fight for equality) through a selection of private letters, journals, and novels.

Including the accounts of the almost unknown clergyman's daughter Agnes Porter to the more famous Mary Wollstonecraft (mother of Mary Godwin, the future author of Frankenstein) and her sisters (Eliza and Everina) and Margaret Landon (the 'Anna' of The King And I) Ruth Brandon also makes liberal use of the writings of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters.

The range of personalities and geographical locations (from English country houses to Thailand's Royal palaces and even an African harem) amazing, its just a shame that reading this 2009 Phoenix Paperback edition with its minuscule print and overly lengthy chapters, each of which was almost a mini biography in itself, was such a toil.

A book probably best dipped into as and when as opposed to read as a whole, this is a wonderful resource for all those interested in the Victorian era and in particular those with an interest in women's history.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Noting in her introduction the scarcity of material from Governesses the author uses those extant sources to advantage. The papers of most governesses were lost because no one really cared about them. However, some now famous women were governesses and because of their intellect and abilities were able to leave the trade and/or utilize what they learned about the trade to advantage after 'retiring'. In rare circumstances diaries and letters were discovered decades after the writer's death in furniture or boxes that were never opened after the governess's demise. Ms. Brandon also uses the literature of female writers of the era who had experience with being a governess and who 'fictionalized' their accounts, e.g. "Jane Eyre." The experiences of some governesses caused them to become advocates for woman's rights, which were essentially non-existent in the 18th and 19th centuries nor earlier in many 'civilized' societies. The last chapter of the book is largely about the 'English Woman's Journal' but is tied into the governess work by the founding of Girton College for Women.