Unfortunate Objects: Lone Mothers in Eighteenth-Century London (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781403939234)

This book analyzes how poor eighteenth-century London women coped when they found themselves pregnant, their survival networks and the consequences of bearing an illegitimate child. It does so by exploring the encounters between poor women and the parish as well as London's lying-in hospitals and the Foundling Hospital. It suggests that unmarried mothers did not constitute a deviant minority within London's plebeian community. In fact, many could expect to find compassion rather than ostracism a response to their plight. All poor mothers, left without the support of their child's father, shared similar strategies of survival and economies of makeshift.

Author: T. Evans
ISBN-10: 1403939233
ISBN-13: 9781403939234
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Language: English
Published: 10/11/2005
Pages: 279
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.07lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.69d