A circle of sisters : Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynter and Louisa Baldwin / Judith Flanders.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Flanders, Judith.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Baldwin, Louisa, 1845-1925.

Baldwin, Louisa.

Burne-Jones, Georgiana, Lady, 1840-1920.

Burne-Jones, Georgiana.

Kipling, Alice, 1837-1910.

Kipling, Alice.

Poynter, Agnes, 1843-1906.

Poynter, Agnes.

McDonald family.

Women--Great Britain--Biography.

Women.

Great Britain.

Sisters--Great Britain--Biography.

Sisters.

Great Britain--Social life and customs--19th century.

Manners and customs.

Great Britain--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 392 pages, 16 pages of plates : illustrations, genealogical table ; 24 cm

Edition:

First American edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton & Co., 2005.

Summary:

They were four women of little fortune. In early Victorian England, what opportunities were there for the daughters of a poor Methodist minister?

The Macdonald sisters-Alice, Georgiana, Agnes, and Louisa-started life precariously stationed in the teeming ranks of the lower-middle class. They were denied the advantage of a traditional education, or the expectation of social advancement. Yet, as wives and mothers, they made a single family of a famous painter, a president of the Royal Academy, a prime minister, and a poet. Georgiana and Agnes married, respectively, the pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones and Royal Academician Edward Poynter; Louisa gave birth to the future prime minister of Britain, Stanley Baldwin, while Alice was the mother of the uncrowned poet laureate of Empire, Rudyard Kipling.

In the midst of such famous men, it is easy to overlook the supporting family structure. But it was the women of the family who created-and held together-this disparate collection of talent and ego. Through their steadiness, the talents of the men could find the space to flower. Burne-Jones took sick on his wedding night, and Georgie, only just twenty, nursed him devotedly, as she was to do at every crisis point in his life. When his mistress and model, Maria Zambaco, failed to persuade him to commit suicide with her, Georgie was once more at his sickbed. Alice was made of sterner stuff, and she was not prepared to tolerate any straying from her men-either Lockwood, her husband, or Rudyard, her son. She was, however, happy to be part of Rudyard's writing life, and he credited her with one of his most famous lines-"What do they know of England, who only England know." She made him understand that family ties mattered, and he patiently went over his Aunt Louisa's high-Victorian novels, offering her literary advice as if she were his equal.

A Circle of Sisters brings to life four women who lived at an exceptional moment in British history. Their journey, in a single generation, from provincial obscurity to metropolitan and imperial grandeur symbolized the energy and vitality of nineteenth-century Britain. This was a society open to talent and abundant with possibility, where four lowly born sisters could rise to become the intimates of politicians, princes, and viceroys.

Offering a rare glimpse of daily life in the nineteenth century-of how people lived and died, of how houses were run and children were raised-Judith Flanders prises open the secrets of a Victorian family. From their homes in India, America, London, and the English countryside, the Macdonald sisters formed a network that-as their husbands and children triumphed and faltered, and the dramas of the outside world unfolded-uniquely endured. Flanders tells their remarkable story with wit, authority, and flair.

Contents:

Family Tree xiv

I Childhood

1 Inheritance 3

2 'So entirely domestic': 1835-1850 10

3 'A moving tent': 1850-1853 29

4 London: 'enchanted ground': 1853-1858 45

II Marriage and Children

5 Travelling in New Worlds: 1859-1862 67

6 The Industrious Apprentices: 1862-1866 87

7 'Love enough to last out a long life': 1866-1871 109

8 Spartan Mothers: 1872-1877 134

9 Faith and Works: 1877-1882 155

III Empty Nests

10 The Families Square: 1882-1884 177

11 Leaving Home: 1884-1888 198

12 The Cousinhood: 1888-1892 219

13 Settling Down: 1892-1894 240

14 Separations: 1895-1898 261

IV Old Age and Death

15 'A pack of troubles': 1898-1906 285

16 'The pain of parting' 306.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (page 331 -376) and index.

ISBN:

0393052109