MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Diaries and Letters of Women Writing in 18th or 19th Century

BookCat · 01-08-2018, 08:40 AM

I would be grateful for recommendations of books of the diaries or letters of women, particularly those written in the 1700s and 1800s.

The main aspect of their lives I'm interested in is childbirth and infant mortality. A friend, who is an historian and myself, were talking about this. I'd noticed the very pragmatic way that childbirth is dealt with in novels of this period, and how pregnancy is hardly mentioned - babies are just magically born, with only a slight reference to a "condition".

We came to the conclusion that this was a mixture of prudery and the high risk of death to both mother and child during birth and the months and early years following. Anyone who has been round an old churchyard will have seen gravestones on which are carved the names and dates of children who die in close succession.

So if you know of any diaries written by women during this period and in ebook format, please tell me.

Lots of thanks in advance.

01-08-2018, 08:40 AM	#1
BookCat C L J Posts: 2,911 Karma: 21115458 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Birmingham UK Device: Sony e-reader 505, Kindle PW2, Kindle PW3, Kobo Libra2	Diaries and Letters of Women Writing in 18th or 19th Century I would be grateful for recommendations of books of the diaries or letters of women, particularly those written in the 1700s and 1800s. The main aspect of their lives I'm interested in is childbirth and infant mortality. A friend, who is an historian and myself, were talking about this. I'd noticed the very pragmatic way that childbirth is dealt with in novels of this period, and how pregnancy is hardly mentioned - babies are just magically born, with only a slight reference to a "condition". We came to the conclusion that this was a mixture of prudery and the high risk of death to both mother and child during birth and the months and early years following. Anyone who has been round an old churchyard will have seen gravestones on which are carved the names and dates of children who die in close succession. So if you know of any diaries written by women during this period and in ebook format, please tell me. Lots of thanks in advance.