Laura Runge

Beauty and Gallantry: A Model of Polite Conversation Revisited

This famous line refers to a convention of romance wherein feminine beauty becomes the reward for masculine heroism. Although Dryden’s poem enjoyed continuous popularity throughout the eighteenth century, this phrase represents a fading, or at least mutating, construction of masculinity as martial and violent. Nonetheless, the line epitomizes a widely accepted code of behavior for men—namely, gallantry, in which a gentleman is responsible for protecting the vulnerable and proverbially beautiful sex. For much of the century, gallantry is espoused as a polite advancement over barbaric practices, whether of England’s past or of other kingdoms. It conveys social benefits to men and women alike; however, the latter are frequently less enthused about gallantry. Often overlooked in studies of civility, female writers of the eighteenth century voice considerable dissent from the general opinion on gallantry. In particular, they question the degree to which men have forsaken violence, as well as the extent to which all women are considered “fair.” Given the centrality of women to England’s development as a polite nation, such concerns merit attention.

Mary Robinson’s Memoirs and the Anti‐Adultery Campaign of the Late Eighteenth Century

ç 2004 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0026-8232/2004/10104-0003

What's in a Name? New Vision for ABO

10.00 Mary Darby Robinson’s Memoirs, published posthumously in 1801, has recently prompted a variety of readings focusing on female authorship, the changing literary marketplace, and women’s life-writings.1 In her telling, Robinson was destined for fame, and it has been her fate to be the object of discourse—whether scandal or scholarship— during her life and since her death. One of the current attractions of Robinson’s memoirs is its chameleon-like nature; as Anne K. Mellor suggests, Robinson exemplifies the postmodern subject, “a concept of the self as entirely fluid, unstable, and performative.”2 Always engaging, the Memoirs shifts among a variety of narrative modes, from

Review of Elizabeth Eger (ed.), Bluestockings Displayed: Portraiture, Performance and Patronage, 1730-1830

Introduction to the new vision statements for the journal.

Gender and Language in British Literary Criticism, 1660-1790

Review of Elizabeth Egers edited collection, Bluestockings Displayed: Portraiture, Performance and Patronage, 1730-1830 (Cambridge UP 2013).

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the eighteenth-century familiar letter

1. Many words on Mount Parnassus 2. Drydens gendered balance and the Augustan ideal 3. Paternity and regulation in the feminine novel 4. Aristotles sisters: Behn, Lennox, Fielding and Reeve 5. Returning to the beautiful Polemical postscript Bibliography.