Unnamed Victorian New Woman's Commonplace Book

There is this poem that I just adore that is called “A Castaway” by Augusta Webster. In this poem, Webster writes about topics that are very important to me. She tells of a girl that goes about her days with “no wishes, no cares, almost no hopes”. This is the sad truth of our life. People don’t see us ladies as capable of anything past basic housework and they never hesitate to set limitations for us. She talks about being sexually active too which is very shocking to read but I just adore it. Women such as us in this day and age should never even think about being such a thing, lest we…

There’s a quote from this book that I like, Jane Eyre, that I thought was just lovely. The quote speaks to me in a lot of ways because it makes a nod to something that burns me up when I think of it. The quote goes, “I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”. There’s something that is so powerful about this quote to me because it shows something that is in…

I quite like this sketch made by Julia Gill. I go biking a lot and it gets to be very strenuous because my dress would seemingly like to stop me from doing it at all. There are no easy solutions to this problem either because people would not like us simply wearing less clothing, but this design that this fine lady has made helps with that. She has defeated this trivial issue. Once this is created I will finally be able to go out and enjoy a nice bike ride without such a struggle. People shouldn’t really have an issue with us wearing something like this since it covers us nice and well. If…