Buy Ecstasy Fichtelberg

__________________________

📍 Verified store!

📍 Guarantees! Quality! Reviews!

__________________________

▼▼ ▼▼ ▼▼ ▼▼ ▼▼ ▼▼ ▼▼

▲▲ ▲▲ ▲▲ ▲▲ ▲▲ ▲▲ ▲▲

Buy Ecstasy Fichtelberg

This paper explores the role of books in American antebellum domestic fiction. Written primarily for middle-class readers, domestic fiction offers advice on how to create an ideal home and in these ideal homes the presence of books is necessary. In an era plagued by a volatile national economy, monetary assets proved an unstable basis for class affiliation. Domestic fiction, however, presents the ownership of books as an alternative foundation for class status. As a result, rather than being based on economic resources, which might lose value overnight, thus causing a plunge on the social ladder, in these tales, middle-class status transcends economic status as it becomes synonymous with the ownership and appreciation of books and the personal qualities books were expected to foster. Instead of a poor gratification of our vanity, or at best of our eyes, we have a productive capital, from which we may derive exhaustless pleasure, which hundreds may share, and which those who come after us may enjoy. O, who can estimate the value of a book! The father-in-law also gives him advice on how the money should be spent, but Mr. Thus, when Mr. However, Mr. What, indeed, is the value of a book? In a similar manner, this paper seeks to follow the book to see where it appears and is absent in nineteenth-century domestic fiction. As material possessions came to signify, establish, and contest class affiliation in the nineteenth century, the tracing of individual objects, especially those with symbolic value, such as the book, can provide further insight into the process through which middle-class values came to transcend class boundaries and become normative. As we will see, in domestic fiction, the ownership of books is a litmus test for class affiliation. The middle class, Mary Templin maintains, was especially hard hit by the fluctuations in the national economy Another catalyst for the emerging middle class was the changing of the occupational map. Stuart Blumin notes that in the nineteenth century, manual and non-manual jobs became increasingly separated, both in terms of space and class By the s, occupations in urban areas of the country were becoming increasingly specialized 93 and work that had previously been performed in the homes of the middling classes was moved to workplaces outside the home, leaving the home a purely domestic space In her study of Oneida County, New York, Mary Ryan shows that the separation of the home and the workplace paved the way for the ideal of domesticity, which became the heart of middle-class ideology. In domestic narratives, which in some cases can be read as manuals, the challenges of creating and maintaining a successful middle-class home are explored through discussions of proper childrearing, the proper care of a husband and, also, how to furnish a home and dress properly. Through their focus on the interior decoration of a home and the possessions of its inhabitants, domestic narratives can, in fact, be read as shopping guides and the intended shoppers are primarily the women of the household since the responsibility of creating and maintaining a home largely fell on them. Barclay from the early days of their marriage, as their children grow up and until the family moves from the city and retires on a farm. Portraying a model middle-class family, the novel gives advice on how to develop proper middle-class values and habits and how to raise virtuous and refined children. Early in the novel, the Barclay home is described through an inventory of its contents, detailing. Surrounded by their possessions, Mr. Barclay establish and raise their family. Richard L. Bushman sees refinement as one of the foremost qualities signifying middle-class status in the antebellum period. Up until the late eighteenth century, the ideal of refinement, which involved the building of stylish homes and the adoption of certain styles of speech, dress, and behavior, was limited to the privileged classes xii. At the same time, because of its roots in aristocratic Europe, refinement was a problematic ideal to emulate in post-Revolutionary America as it clashed with republican values like frugalness and simplicity. Templin notes that possessions that were either unavailable or unusable by the working class, such as books or musical instruments, singled their owners out as middle-class In order to be perceived as refined, people from the eighteenth century and onwards bought carpets, mahogany furniture, candlesticks—and books Bushman xvii. Bushman shows that books were privileged among the items necessary for refinement. A protagonist who is not a book-lover is all but inconceivable in these narratives. A discussion early in the narrative among some children about the book prizes they have won in school reveals what the future will hold for them. Later in life, Paulina ends up an opium-addicted adulteress, and Morris makes a fortune on speculations, marries a fashionable and shallow woman, and leads a loveless life, burdened by financial worries as his wife spends their money uncontrollably. Harry, on the other hand, marries his childhood sweetheart Susan and finds himself a poor, but happy husband and father, surrounded by a loving family. One of the treasures of the family is a shelf of books, which they share freely with their neighbors, thus contributing to the moral and intellectual improvement of the whole community. Through their appreciation of books, Harry and his family posit themselves as middle class, despite their apparent lack of economic assets. Unlike Paulina and Morris, who treat their book prizes solely as commodities whose value lies in their commercial potential, Harry sees other, non-monetary values in the book. In the end, only the book-lover leads a happy, virtuous, and middle-class life. Serving as an instrument of classification, books, Sedgwick implies, and attitudes to books give an indication of the future lives of individuals, in terms of moral character, happiness, and, also, social class. Ironically enough, despite his initial refusal to sell his book prize, Harry, too, ends up a seller of books. In other words, although Harry, like other protagonists of domestic fiction, values books primarily for their moral and aesthetic qualities, he does not hesitate to exchange a book for money when the situation demands it. Barclay in Home presents a similar attitude to books. In the early days of their marriage, Mr. Even though the Barclays mainly value books for their moral, aesthetic and educational qualities, Mr. The fact that Mr. Barclay is a printer, whose professional success depends on the commercial value of printed material, including books, also indicates that books are commodities. For the Barclays, then, books are an investment in a prosperous future, both through their own purchases and through the selling of books. In order to buy her daughter this gift, Mrs. Such beautiful Bibles she had never seen; she pored in ecstasy over their varieties in type and binding, and was very evidently in love with them all. Nevertheless, just as in Home and The Poor Rich Man , it is suggested that books carry values beyond those of commerce. Whereas books can be purchased and put on a shelf to signify and achieve middle-class status, in domestic tales this is not enough. Books and other consumer goods should also be cherished, since this will transform them from commodities into beloved possessions. At the same time, however, it was necessary to separate oneself from the market world in order to be able to cultivate those moral and aesthetic qualities necessary for middle-class status. Thus, Mr. Who, indeed, can estimate the value of a book? Or, rather, how should the value of a book be estimated? Barclay provide an answer to these questions. Rather than speculating in stocks or land activities that are universally condemned in domestic fiction , Mr. Barclay has put his capital into books, an investment that, considering the volatile national economy, turns out to be a wise one. Books might be bought for money, but their value, it is suggested, goes beyond the market. Norton and his family show the consequences of making the wrong investments. Unlike the Barclays, who choose books over gaudy furniture, the Nortons live in a mansion filled with elegant furniture and give lavish parties. They strive to establish themselves in the fashionable circles of society and spend money on showing off rather than on that which will promote a happy and comfortable domestic environment. It all comes to an end when Mr. Being on the brink of destitution, Mr. Norton suddenly dies, leaving his family at the mercy of their neighbors. Books and reading are not valued in the Norton family and, as their social position is based solely on their fortune, their social descent is dramatic when they lose their wealth. Since they are business partners, Mr. Barclay also loses money in this affair and it has severe economic consequences for the family as they are forced to postpone their long-cherished plan of moving to a farm in the countryside. However, the Barclays retain their domestic stability and happiness and also their middle-class status as their class identity is not based on money, but on values and manners created in the home and with the help of books. In their choice of furniture and lifestyle, Mr. Norton and Mr. Barclay employ different strategies of consumption and, thereby, different strategies for establishing social position. Whereas Mr. Barclay makes good consumer choices, which establish him as a refined member of the middle-class, Mr. By presenting middle-class status as a matter of consumption, where certain commodities help bolster the effects of economic loss, while the purchase of the wrong commodities leads to ruin, Home seemingly offers a strategy for those wishing to become socially and economically, as well as morally, solvent. Woodbridge presents another example of the consequences of faulty habits of consumption, thus providing advice on how to stay clear of the pitfalls in the world of commerce. Here, too, we follow a newlywed couple as they establish their first home. However, when her husband, Mr. Charlotte spends lavishly on furniture, but she is very stingy in her housekeeping which is one of the reasons why she wants the small room in the back for a dining room, so that visitors will not catch them at their scanty meals , with the result that her husband finds a comfortless, often dark, house at the return home after a long day at the office. Driven away by the lack of comfort at home, Mr. Replacing her desire for dresses and silk curtains with a wish to create a comfortable home for her husband, Charlotte becomes a good consumer, as well as a good wife, as she learns to crave the right possessions—those that promote domestic happiness. With the creation of a library and a bigger piece of the household budget spent on food, Mr. Echoing the words of Mr. Home makes a similar suggestion as it is hinted that Mr. According to Mary Beth Sievens, the emergence of female consumption in post-Revolutionary America was perceived to be a threat not only to male authority, but also to the survival of the Republic Sievens finds that although the tensions that arose between different groups in society due to the emergence of capitalism have received scholarly attention, the conflicts this economic transition created within families have not been much studied since families tend to be viewed as one economic unit In both Mr. Woodbridge and Home, men are the victims of deficient skills of consumption among the female members of their households, which suggests the necessity of teaching women these skills. In her widely read A Treatise on Domestic Economy , Beecher argues that young women should learn to handle their own expenses, asking. How else are young ladies to learn properly to make purchases, and to be systematic and economical? The before-mentioned scene in The Wide, Wide World , where Ellen buys a Bible, presents another example of the role of mothers in teaching proper habits of consumption. Montgomery knows that the art of shopping is a vital skill for a young woman to master. While letting Ellen pick out her own Bible, her mother gently guides her towards a sensible and practical choice and this way ensures that she makes a good consumer decision. Through the guidance of her mother, Ellen will avoid the consumer mistakes made by Charlotte in Mr. Woodbridge, as well as The Wide, Wide World, class position is demonstrated through not only the purchase, but also the display of consumer goods. Not only does the home lack carpets and soft sofas. If one wants to wash up, one must go outside to the spout remember the apparatus for ablutions in the Barclay home and, most shockingly, there are no books, not even the Bible. Although she is respectable in the sense that she is hard-working and keeps a well-ordered household, Aunt Fortune is also hard-hearted, bad-tempered, and cares nothing for religion. Consequently, she does not assume the behavior and values expected in a middle-class woman—those of virtuous, Christian femininity—which are what female protagonists in these narratives are expected to strive for. Instead, as her name indicates, Aunt Fortune is all about the money, which is not conducive to a feminine middle-class identity. While Aunt Fortune finds her treasure in livestock and land, Alice finds hers in books. Alice not only reads books, she owns them and she takes pleasure in owning them. The economic resources of Alice and Aunt Fortune are not the basis for their class affiliation—the fact that Aunt Fortune might very well be richer than the Humphreys is of no consequence—it is their differing attitudes to reading and books that determine where they belong on the social ladder. Also, it is her love of reading and books that enables Ellen to retain her middle-class identity while living with Aunt Fortune. On the boat taking her to her aunt, as she hides crying, an elderly gentleman, Mr. Marshman, gives her a book of hymns, kindly marking some of the hymns for her to read and contemplate especially The fact that Ellen is given books at important turning points in her life not only suggests the shaping power books were felt to have, it also shows the importance of owning books. In her study of middle-class parlors in Victorian America, Katherine C. Aunt Fortune, who is engaged in a never-ending round of household chores, keeps a spotless house, but it does not seem like a home as it is not nor does it aspire to be comfortable. When Mr. Woodbridge suggests that the backroom in their new house be turned into a library, he seeks to establish a comfortable space, which his wife considers unnecessary since she values showiness over comfort. Also in Home , when Mr. Barclay claims. In the home of Mr. Woodbridge, showiness is eventually replaced by a more comfortable arrangement, which leads to a happy home and a blissful marriage. Also, personal comfort was considered a prerequisite for a charitable character. Merish points out that when freed from bodily discomfort, the individual was able to care for others and, as a result, discomfort was morally dangerous as it might make a person insensible and less charitable Sentimental Materialism In other words, the reason for the hard-heartedness of Aunt Fortune might be her choice of interior decoration and the floor plan of her house. Being comfortable oneself, one was able to promote the comfort and well-being of others as well, which meant that society as a whole benefitted from comfortable homes. The choice of a Bible which is of a size that makes it easy to read in but also to carry around—a comfortable size—is just one item that will keep her on the right path. Similarly, when the eldest son in Home , Charles, goes West, his father gives him books to bring with him. Together they also subscribe to some periodicals that they keep in the reading room and they meet regularly to exchange ideas about what they read. By making his books available to his neighbors, Charles takes on the role of a missionary spreading the ideals of refinement, but also the word of God since the room is also used for religious meetings. As he creates a comfortable space and shares this space and his books with his neighbors, Charles helps keep the frontier community virtuous, civilized, and middle class. In domestic fiction, the presence of books serves as proof of proper skills of consumption and, thereby, of middle-class status. However, a shelf of books will not only tell visitors that this is a refined middle-class home, the presence of these books, both on the shelf and as instruments of reading, will also help their owners to develop those qualities deemed necessary for middle-class identity as they offer opportunities for intellectual, spiritual, and moral growth. This way, books can provide the personal traits necessary to handle the fluctuations of the economy. Once an owner and lover of books, these tales suggest, always a member of the middle class. Amireh, Amal. New York: Garland Publishing, Beecher, Catharine. A Treatise on Domestic Economy. New York: Schocken Books, Blumin, Stuart M. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Brown, Gillian. Berkeley: University of California Press, Bushman, Richard L. New York: Vintage Books, Child, Lydia Maria. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, Crowley, John. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, Damon-Bach, Lucinda, and Victoria Clements. Catharine Maria Sedgwick: Critical Perspectives. Boston: Northeastern University Press, Davidson, Cathy. New York: Oxford University Press, Downing, Andrew Jackson. Victorian Cottage Residences. New York: Dover Publications, Fichtelberg, Joseph. Critical Fictions: Sentiment and the American Market, Foster, Edward Halsey Foster. Susan and Anna Warner. Boston: Twayne Publishers, Gallagher, Catherine and Stephen Greenblatt. Practicing New Historicism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, Grier, Katherine C. Washington, D. Kerber, Linda K. New York: W. Norton and Company, Lang, Amy Schrager. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, Leslie, Eliza. Woodbridge: A Story of Domestic Life. Selections from Eliza Leslie. Etta M. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, MacFarlane, Lisa Watt. Merish, Lori. Durham: Duke University Press, Robbins, Sarah. Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, Ryan, Mary. New York: Cambridge University Press, Sedgwick, Catharine Maria. London: T. Allman, Bibliobazaar, Shapiro, Joe. Sievens, Mary Beth. Silverman, Gillian. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Templin, Mary. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, Trubey, Elizabeth Fekete. Warner, Susan. The Wide, Wide World. New York: The Feminist Press, Zboray, Ronald J. The theme of reading has also been explored in The Wide, Wide World , which has received more scholarly attention than the other narratives discussed in this paper. See for example Ashworth and Trubey. Silverman investigates the significance of reading and also the materiality of books in The Wide, Wide World in chapter 5 of Bodies and Books. See also Templin and Lang. As a result, Shapiro contends, Sedgwick considered class differences to be socially beneficial. As many scholars have pointed out, the reading of inappropriate books, such as frivolous novels, was felt to have a deteriorating effect on moral character, especially for young women. In Revolution and the Word, Cathy Davidson explores attitudes to novels in a somewhat earlier time period chapter 2. Robbins investigates the role of the mother in selecting appropriate reading material for her children, as well as teaching them proper reading practices see especially chapter 2. To help readers pick which books to buy and read, Home conveniently presents a list of some of the titles in the Barclay bookcase 12 and also mentions the type of books that have been made available for their help, Martha, which shows that what constitutes appropriate reading material depends on the social class of the reader Countless fictional and non-fictional works by writers like Catharine Beecher, Lydia Maria Child, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, and Harriet Beecher Stowe offer advice on topics like how to cook and carve meat and the proper way of treating servants, but also on how to make sensible and economical purchases of household goods, such as furniture, food, and dress. While the kitchen is the center of the home in the former works, the parlor has taken its place in the urban New York novels. As MacFarlane points out, this change also reflects a change in the role of the woman in the home since the kitchen figures as a site of production, while the parlor is devoted to consumption. Thus, by relegating the middle-class woman to the parlor, her role becomes one of consumption rather than production The peripheral role of the kitchen can also be seen in the floor plans of the houses designed by the contemporary architect and landscape designer A. Downing, whose house models were immensely popular among the middle class. These plans generally place a spacious parlor in the front of the house, while the cramped kitchen is situated in the back or even in the basement, with a dumb waiter—a small elevator—bringing up the food to the dining room. This way, oppressive smells from the kitchen would be prevented from spreading throughout the rest of the house and signs of ongoing work were kept away from the reception area of the home. The focus on appearance, together with the fact that books were advertised as interior decoration , demonstrate that the display of books in the home was also a display of social position. Site map — Contact us — Website credits — Syndication. Privacy Policy — About Cookies — Report a problem. Skip to navigation — Site map. European journal of American studies. Contents - Previous document - Next document. Presidential Election. Summer Articles. Johanna McElwee. Abstract This paper explores the role of books in American antebellum domestic fiction. Index terms Keywords: Eliza Leslie , Catharine Maria Sedgwick , Susan Warner , antebellum consumerism , domestic fiction , domesticity , middle-class ideals , role of book. Outline Classifying Books. Full text PDF Share by e-mail. Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Home 14 i Whereas the significance of owning books has received limited scholarly attention, the act of readi She sug Notes i Whereas the significance of owning books has received limited scholarly attention, the act of reading in domestic fiction has been investigated. Top of page. About the author Johanna McElwee Top of page. Follow us RSS feed. Newsletters OpenEdition Newsletter. In collaboration with. In All OpenEdition. On European journal of American studies. Home Catalogue of journals OpenEdition Search. All OpenEdition. OpenEdition Freemium. OpenEdition Search Newsletter.

Bibliography

Buy Ecstasy Fichtelberg

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless. Access options available:. Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. Institutional Login. LOG IN. Search: Search:. Access options available: Download PDF. Additional Information. Project MUSE Mission Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide.

Buy Ecstasy Fichtelberg