Author: Clarke, Patricia.
Title: The Governesses: Letters from the Colonies 1862 - 1882.
Description: Melbourne, Hawthorn Hutchinson Australia, 1985. 1st ed. Hardback octavo, dustjacket, very good condition (in very good dustjacket), black & white photos, pages faintly toned, minor edgewear jacket, spine ends little rubbed, light foxing top edge & reverse side jacket (small closed tear). 236 pp. About the women, governesses sponsored by the Female Middle Class Emigration Society, who left Britain to seek a better life in the Colonies. They borrowed money for their fare from the Society. In letters back to the Society when repaying their loans, these women reported on life as they saw it in the Colonies during the years 1862 - 82. Although mainly about those who came to Australia, there are chapters on those who went to New Zealand and South Africa, and also the few who went further away - to the United States, India, and most unlikely of all, one who went to Russia, where she found herself almost penniless in Czarist St Petersburg. The author also tried to find out what happened to the women after their letters to the Society stopped. These women had the courage to venture far - and their letters tell their story. ISBN: 0091486009

Keywords: australian history, families, gender, women, letters, britain 0091486009


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