Women, Literature and Finance in Victorian Britain

Women, Literature and Finance in Victorian Britain: Cultures of Investment defines the cultures that emerged in response to the democratization of the stock market in nineteenth-century Britain when investing provided access to financial independence for women. Victorian novels represent those economic networks in realistic detail and are preoccupied with the intertwined economic and affective lives of characters. Analyzing evidence about the lives of real investors together with fictional examples, including case studies of four authors who were also investors, Nancy Henry argues that investing was not just something women did in Victorian Britain; it was a distinctly modern way of thinking about independence, risk, global communities and the future in general.

“Woman, Literature and Finance is an engrossing work and a welcome continuation of Henry’s research interests on the intersection between cultural representation and finance, most notably as co-editor of Victorian Investments: New Perspectives on Finance and Literature (2009). Henry commands a broad swathe of literary and historical sources.” (BAVS Newsletter, Vol. 19 (3), 2019)

“This is a rich and important study. … This book will be of benefit to anyone interested in nineteenth-century gender, authorship, community, or finance.” (Jill Rappoport, Studies in the Novel, Vol. 51 (3), 2019)

“This is a fascinating book, with new material, particularly on Riddell’s and Oliphant’s lives and novels and original critiques of their financial writings as well as those of Gaskell and Eliot.” (Janette Rutterford, Business History Review, Vol. 93 (1), 2019)

“Archival research and close literary readings is one of the great pleasures of the book. … This fascinating and informative new study is a must-read for scholars and students interested in Victorian political economy and women’s writing. The individual-author format of the chapters makes them ideal for assigning in graduate or advanced undergraduate classes, where they will provide invaluable context for, and deepen and enrich, readings of novels treating (often opaque) economic and financial themes.” (Deanna K. Kreisel, Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, Vol. 15 (2), 2019)


“Women, Literature and Finance in Victorian Britain draws significant and insightful connections between the world of the novel and the world of investment in industrial society. The book is not only a tour de force of astute literary criticism but is also a path-breaking cultural history of women and investment.  Nancy Henry's extensive detective work has filled in crucial gaps in the lives of several women novelists, establishing them as both avid investors and key commentators on Victorian capitalism. ” (George Robb, Professor of History, William Paterson University, USA, and author of Ladies of the Ticker: Women and Wall Street from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression (2017))

“Sometimes surprising, consistently satisfying, Nancy Henry’s Women, Literature and Finance in Victorian Britain traces the interconnections between real and fictional female investors by placing them in their local, national, and global contexts.  In Henry’s hands, familiar novels become new again as heretofore unknown facts illuminate characters and bring incidental details to life.  A masterful contribution to Victorian Studies. ” (Mary Poovey, Professor Emeritus, New York University, and author of Genres of the Credit Economy (2008))

“In this illuminating book, Nancy Henry plaits together biography, readings of objects and architecture, archival research, and literary analysis. This innovative approach draws textually submerged knowledge about Victorian women’s relation to investment culture to the surface and permits fresh and persuasive new insights into the novels. I’ll never read Mary Barton the same way again.” (Ella Dzelzainis, Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Newcastle University, UK)

“Nancy Henry’s important new book sheds much-needed light on the history of women’s role in financial markets. This book’s originality lies in the braiding together of economic history, archival research into women authors’investing habits, and lucid analyses of representations of women investors in Victorian fiction. Arguing that gender is a relevant category for thinking about Victorian cultures of investment, Henry provides perceptive new readings of novels by Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Riddell, George Eliot and Margaret Oliphant, bringing into sharper focus their complex understanding of capitalism. While scathing critiques of the financial system are not lacking in male-authored novels, Henry persuasively argues that female authors, for whom investing was a unique means of empowerment, wrote about money, economics and finance in ways that differ significantly from the anticapitalist critiques of their male contemporaries. Women, Literature and Finance in Victorian Britain is a benchmark text for those seeking to understand the interconnections between economic history, biography and literary production in the nineteenth century.” (Silvana Colella, Professor of English Literature, University of Macerata, Italy, and author of Charlotte Riddell’s City Novels and Victorian Business: Narrating Capitalism (2016))

Nancy Henry is the Nancy Goslee Professor of English at the University of Tennessee, USA. She is the author of George Eliot and the British Empire (2002), The Cambridge Introduction to George Eliot (2008) and The Life of George Eliot (2012) and co-editor of Victorian Investments: New Perspectives on Finance and Literature (2009).