Review of Cynthia Eagle Russett, Sexual Science (1989); Regina Barrecca, ed., Sex and Death in Victorian Literature (1990); and Don Richard Cox, ed., Sexuality and Victorian Literature (1984)

Abstract

Considers Russett’s book truly remarkable in its breadth of inquiry and quality of analysis in demonstrating how the Victorians used science to justify patriarchal ideas about women’s limited intellectual capacity. Finds some of the essays in Barrecca’s collection illuminating, but others in the book as well as most in Cox’s volume outdated and limited in scope.