Nineteenth-Century Anti-Catholic Discourses

DIANA PESCHIER is an independent researcher in Nineteenth-century literature and religion.

• Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction The Construction of an Anti-Catholic Ideology in the Nineteenth-Century: Sexuality, Gender, Patriarchy and the Discourse of Fear Forgive me Father: The Perception of the Sacrament of Confession as a Means to Control and Debauch Young Girls and Women The Danger of Gliding Jesuits and the Effects of a Catholic Education Lifting the Veil: A Nineteenth-Century Perception of Nuns and Convents Nineteenth-Century Anti-Catholic Discourse in the Brontë's Local Newspaper The Perceived Anti-Catholicism of Charlotte Brontë's Novel, The Professor Jane Eyre : Anti-Catholic or Anti-Christian Novel? Shirley : A Social Novel The Priestcraft of the Book: Representations of Catholicism in Villette Conclusion. A discourse of Fear Engendered by the Rise of Roman Catholicism in Mid Nineteenth-Century England Bibliography and Sources Index

'This book provides much-needed insight into the widespread anti-Roman Catholic prejudice of mid-nineteenth-century England and highlights the gendered nature of this discourse. It offers a useful context in which to view attitudes to Catholicism in Victorian literature, especially in the novels of Charlotte Brontë.' - Christine Alexander, Professor of English, University of New South Wales, UK'Peschier's is a useful account and her analyses of the four Brontë novels are original and challenge conventional readings.' - Anthony Chennells, The Heythrop Journal