Home The Reading Figure in Irish Art in the Long Nineteenth Century

The Reading Figure in Irish Art in the Long Nineteenth Century

The Reading Figure in Irish Art in the Long Nineteenth Century

This book examines Irish portraits during the long nineteenth century in which figures read or hold a book. Reading fiction was cast as unmanly, while ‘silent reading’ allowed women of means to read widely and privately. Portraits of such women helped construct the idea of the ‘New Woman’ in Ireland.

Tricia Cusack

  • Anthem Press
  • 9781839988707
  • 250 pages
  • Paperback
  • United Kingdom
  • Portraits in art