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Bestseller
BestsellerE-book
Author Robson, John M.

Title Marriage or celibacy? : the Daily telegraph on a Victorian dilemma / John M. Robson.

Publication Info. Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, [1995]
©1995

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (365 pages)
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Contents 1. The Great Social Evil -- 2. Marriage or Celibacy? The Daily Telegraph Series -- 3. Marriage and Mores: Arguments and Practices -- 4. "The Equation of Income and Expenditure" -- 5. Celibates and Celibacy -- 6. Problems and Solutions: The Ways In and the Way Out -- 7. Emigration or Starvation? -- 8. Conclusions -- Appendix C: Comparison of the Expenditures in "Marriage or Celibacy?" and Other Sources.
Summary Public attention was first caught by a court report of a failed attempt to entrap a Belgian girl into prostitution. This induced blistering editorial comment and angry letters to the paper deploring ineffectual controls over the "Great Social Evil." The next development was unusual for the Victorian press: readers began to write extensive and richly varied comment on the root of the problem - young people did not have in possession or expectation enough money or the right qualifications for marriage. The Telegraph initiated a new form of popular journalism by filling its correspondence columns for almost a month with readers letters under the heading "Marriage or Celibacy?", which they supplemented with lengthy leading articles.
John Robson places in contemporary context the central issues facing Victorian youth: What is a proper marriage? How to balance income and expenditure? What are the ideal qualities of young women and men? "Emigration or starvation?" In examining these debates, he looks closely into methods of argument, connecting rhetorical techniques with public persuasion. The letters being a special kind of discourse, he shows how in the debates rhetorical and logical arguments are specifically designed to persuade the Telegraph's readers. Marriage or Celibacy? contributes to our knowledge of Victorian manners and mores, particularly among the lower middle class, and is a telling episode in the history of popular journalism.
In July 1868 the Daily Telegraph congratulated itself on providing the arena for a controversy marked by "good sense, liveliness, practical wisdom, and hearty humanity." The controversy was over the choice - "Marriage or Celibacy?"--Faced by middle-class youth trying to reconcile economic facts with moral values, social customs - and love. The arena was the correspondence page of a newspaper just establishing itself as the most successful London daily through its appeal to the middle-class reader.
Access Use copy Restrictions unspecified MiAaHDL
Reproduction Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2011. MiAaHDL
System Details Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
Processing Action digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve MiAaHDL
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Daily telegraph (London, England : 1856)
Daily telegraph.
Letters to the editor -- England.
Letters to the editor.
England.
Prostitution -- Press coverage.
Prostitution -- Press coverage.
Marriage -- Press coverage.
Marriage -- Press coverage.
Emigration and immigration -- Press coverage.
Emigration and immigration -- Press coverage.
Middle class -- England -- Attitudes -- History -- 19th century.
Middle class.
History.
Chronological Term 19th century
Subject England -- Moral conditions.
Moral conditions.
Gran Bretaña -- Condiciones morales -- Siglo XIX.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Subject Female prostitution.
Prostitution.
Marriage.
Added Title Daily telegraph (London, England : 1856)
Other Form: Print version: Robson, John M. Marriage or celibacy? Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, ©1995 9780802004734 (DLC) 95169067 (OCoLC)31290066
ISBN 9781442677081 (electronic book)
1442677082 (electronic book)
1281997307
9781281997302
9780802077981
0802004733 (bound)
0802077986 (paperback)
9780802004734