1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910954932503321

Autore

Heath Kay <1953->

Titolo

Aging by the book : the emergence of midlife in Victorian Britain / / Kay Heath

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Albany, : SUNY Press, c2009

ISBN

9780791477267

0791477266

9781441607720

1441607722

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (262 p.)

Collana

SUNY series, studies in the long nineteenth century

Disciplina

305.2440941/09034

Soggetti

Middle-aged women - Attitudes

Middle-aged women - Great Britain - Social conditions

Great Britain History Victoria, 1837-1901

Great Britain Social life and customs 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-239) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: The rise of midlife in Victorian Britain -- "No longer the man he was" : age anxiety in the male midlife marriage plot -- "The neutral man-woman" : female desexualization at midlife -- Marriageable at midlife : the remarrying widows of Frances Trollope and Anthony Trollope -- In the eye of the beholder : Victorian age construction and the specular self -- "How to keep young" : advertising and late-Victorian age anxiety -- Afterword: The future of midlife.

Sommario/riassunto

Aging by the Book offers an innovative look at the ways in which middle age, which for centuries had been considered the prime of life, was transformed during the Victorian era into a period of decline. Single women were nearing middle age at thirty, and mothers in their forties were expected to become sexless; meanwhile, fortyish men anguished over whether their "time for love had gone by." Looking at well-known novels of the period, as well as advertisements, cartoons, and medical and advice manuals, Kay Heath uncovers how this ideology of decline permeated a changing culture. Aging by the Book unmasks and confronts midlife anxiety by examining its origins, demonstrating that



our current negative attitude toward midlife springs from Victorian roots, and arguing that only when we understand the culturally constructed nature of age can we expose its ubiquitous and stealthy influence.