Grace Aguilar Selected Writings

For the first time in over a century, this edition makes available the work of the most important Jewish writer in early and mid-Victorian Britain. Grace Aguilar (1816-1847) broke new literary ground by writing from the unique perspective of an Anglo-Jewish woman. Aguilar's writing responds to English representations of Jews and women by writers such as Felicia Hemans, Maria Edgeworth, Sir Walter Scott, and Thomas Macaulay. She both assimilates and alters the genres of historical romance, dramatic monologue, domestic fiction, history, and midrash, among others. This edition includes Aguilar's novella The Perez Family in its entirety; the Sephardic historical romance "The Escape," her Sephardic historical romance, "History of the Jews in England," the first such history ever written by a Jew; major poems; excerpts from The Women of Israel; and Aguilar's Frankfurt journal, never before published. Also included are primary source materials such as writings on "the Jewish question" from Aguilar's non-Jewish contemporaries, tributes and memoirs, and contemporary responses to her work.

A comprehensive collection of the works of Grace Aguilar, one of the most important Jewish writers of the 19th century. Includes her seminal works on Jewish history and culture, as well as her pioneering contributions to the emerging genre of Jewish fiction. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Since the late twentieth century, there has been a strategic campaign to recover the impact of Victorian women writers in the field of English literature. However, with the increased understanding of the importance of interdisciplinarity in the twenty-first century, there is a need to extend this campaign beyond literary studies in order to recognise the role of women writers across the nineteenth century, a time that was intrinsically interdisciplinary in approach to scholarly writing and public intellectual engagement.

In the last twenty years, there has been a growing recognition of the centrality of religious beliefs to an understanding of Victorian literature and society. This interdisciplinary collection makes a significant contribution to post-secularist scholarship on Victorian culture, reflecting the great diversity of religious beliefs and doubts in Victorian Britain, with essays on Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian, and spiritualist topics. Writing from a variety of disciplinary perspectives for an interdisciplinary audience, the essayists investigate religious belief using diverse historical and literary sources, including journalism, hymns, paintings, travel-writings, scientific papers, novels, and poetry. Essays in the volume examine topics including: • The relation between science and religion in the career of evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (Thomas Prasch); • The continuing significance of the Bible in geopolitical discourse (Eric Reisenauer); • The role of children and children’s hymns in the missionary and temperance movements (Alisa Clapp-Itnyre); • The role of women in Christian and Jewish traditions (Julie Melnyk and Lindsay Dearinger); • The revival of Catholicism and Catholic culture and practices (Katherine Haldane Grenier and Michelle Meinhart); • The occult religious society Golden Dawn (Sharon Cogdill); • Faith in the writings of the Brontë sisters (Christine Colón), Charles Dickens (Jessica Hughes) and George Eliot (Robert Koepp).

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.