Transcending Prudence: Charlotte Riddell's 'City Women'

Focusing on two novels, Austin Friars (1871) and Mortomley’s Estate (1873), this chapter examines Charlotte Riddell’s representation of female economic agency and entrepreneurship. The types of stories Riddell imagined in the 1870s testify to the growing cultural, social, and political relevance of questions pertaining to women’s relations with money, property, and professional aspirations. No advocate for women’s rights, Riddell nonetheless contributed to redefining the imaginative contours of women’s participation in the life of the market. Colella argues that these novels are not radically disruptive of consolidated gender roles, but they test the limits of domestic femininity by placing heroines in extreme situations that elicit the exercise of their entrepreneurial spirit.