First published in 1988, Affairs of the Hearth challenges many widely held assumptions about Victorian culture and shows that its poetry was far more innovative and experimental than it is often considered to be. The author argues that, far from being complacent about domesticity or reticent about sexuality, Victorian writers discussed these matters perceptively and in detail. He shows that the poems analyzed by Clough, Tennyson, Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, and Meredith are preoccupied with the stresses of marriage, sexuality, gender, the role of women, parent-child relationships, and adolescence. The same themes are explored as the author makes comparisons with contemporary painting, fiction, and diaries. He discovers a collection of unhappy homes and appalling families and finds the tensions of Victorian life in the very images of domestic comfort.
In analysing the texts both closely and historically, Edmond draws accessibly on the theoretical work by Foucault, Williams, and Eagleton, and tests it against specific texts and a particular culture. He also contributes to the historical debate of the time about the history of the family and will be of interest to all students of Victorian literature, social history, women's studies, and literary theory.