Diaries of “Queens of the Hearth”

• Published in: Writing Herself into Being p. 165
• Main Author: PATRICIA SMART
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: MQUP 01.11.2017
• Subjects: Artists; Arts; Behavioral sciences; Book publishing; Business; Children; Communication skills; Communications; Comparative literature; Daughters; Economic disciplines; Economics; Employment; Families; Family members; French literature; Human populations; Human societies; Husbands; Industrial sectors; Industry; Journal writing; Knowledge industries; Labor economics; Language skills; Literary criticism; Literary studies; Literature; Men; Mothers; Novelists; Occupations; Persons; Population studies; Publishing industry; Social institutions; Social sciences; Sociology; Women; World literature; Writers; Writing; Writing skills; Written communication; Written composition
• DOI: 10.1515/9780773552654-010

In spite of the difficulty of reconciling private writing with marriage revealed by the diaries of Henriette Dessaulles and Joséphine Marchand, several married women did manage to keep diaries. In the mid-nineteenth century, some began to assume the role of unofficial historians, using chronicle-type diaries in which they noted the births, illnesses, anniversaries, birthdays, and deaths of their family members, as well as the social and religious activities of their communities. If the authors of these texts “come to life” for the reader, it is not by revealing their intimate secrets, but by evoking with precision and even eloquence the