Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England Paperback – January 22, 2007
by Sharon Marcus
Queer Places:
The Hyde, Ayot St. Lawrence, Welwyn, AL6 9BX, UK
Alice Catherine Miles (1850 – April 3, 1926) was an English upper-class Victorian debutante and diarist.
Between 1868 and 1870, from age 17 to 20, she kept a detailed journal documenting the social rituals, courtships, and internal dynamics of London elite society. Her writings were posthumously published in 1992 under the title Every Girl's Duty: The Diary of a Victorian Debutante (edited by Maggy Parsons).
She was the daughter of Sir Philip John William Miles and Frances Elizabeth Roche. In 1870, she married George Duppa, JP (1819–1888).
Following Duppa's death, she remarried on February 20, 1889, to Lt. Col. Gerard Vivian Ames (1853–1899) of the 1st The Royal Dragoons.
Across her marriages, she had six children.
She died on April 3, 1926.
In gender studies and history of sexuality, Alice Catherine Miles’s diary provides a window into the nuanced homosocial and homoerotic landscape of 19th-century elite women.
Miles expressed cynicism toward intense female devotions, viewing affection between women through a heteronormative lens—suggesting that female intimacy was often derivative or motivated by male attention ("a sign . . . that a man is at the bottom of the emotion").
Despite her skepticism, her writings reveal a profound aesthetic and personal attraction toward other women. Her description of a young woman as "a regular little rose bud . . . looking perfectly bewitching" illustrates how Victorian women often negotiated desire, admiration, and competitive rivalry within strict societal boundaries.
Scholars analyze her entries to illustrate how young Victorian women engaged in intense homosocial bonds, balancing prescribed expectations of heterosexual marriage against genuine fascination with other women.
References:
|
Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England Paperback – January 22, 2007 by Sharon Marcus |
Other references:
Support this project
This website is a passion project researched, developed, and funded entirely by me. If you find the content valuable and would like to help support the ongoing research and hosting costs, any contribution is deeply appreciated.
Thank you for keeping this independent resource alive!
My books on Amazon: Elisa Rolle's books