Aging by the Book: The Emergence of Midlife in Victorian Britain

by Kay Heath

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,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 079147657X
• ISBN13: 9780791476574
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 260 Pages