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"Victorian aristocrat Mary, Marchioness of Huntly found royal balls and London society ""suffocating"". A woman of fierce intellect, she shied away from the limelight, finding her 'oxygen' in the emerging streams of thinking of her time; on Christianity, nature and botany, and the role of women. Mary wrote in her diary nearly every day of her life from the age of ten, leaving behind an account of her lifetime's reading and response to it that appears to be unsurpassed among Victorian diaries. Dr Maxine Eziefula unearthed this treasure and endeavoured to mirror Mary's entire reading experience; sourcing every available book of note that Mary read. Through her scholarly analysis of Mary's diaries and literature, Dr Eziefula offers fascinating insight into the Victorian worldview, enabling the reader to join the intelletual and spiritual journey of an exceptional Victorian mind. This book will delight those interested in Victorian social history and in the developing field of reading studies, and will inspire those on their own path of faith."

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9781739589509

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"About The Reluctant Aristocrat Victorian aristocrat Mary, Marchioness of Huntly found royal balls and London society ""suffocating"". A woman of fierce intellect, she shied away from the limelight, finding her 'oxygen' in the emerging streams of thinking of her time; on Christianity, nature and botany, and the role of women. Mary wrote in her diary nearly every day of her life from the age of ten, leaving behind an account of her lifetime's reading and response to it that appears to be unsurpassed among Victorian diaries. Dr Maxine Eziefula unearthed this treasure and endeavoured to mirror Mary's entire reading experience; sourcing every available book of note that Mary read. Through her scholarly analysis of Mary's diaries and literature, Dr Eziefula offers fascinating insight into the Victorian worldview, enabling the reader to join the intelletual and spiritual journey of an exceptional Victorian mind. This book will delight those interested in Victorian social history and in the developing field of reading studies, and will inspire those on their own path of faith. About the author Dr Maxine Eziefula (1947-2022) was born in Portsmouth and moved to London in the 1960s, graduating from Kings College London in 1968 with a BA Hons in English. In her varied career she worked as a teacher, social worker and administrator for the Garden History Society, and was a dedicated mother to four children. Maxine's lifelong interest in horticulture saw her win the Royal Horticultural Society's Centennial Prize in 1993 and earn a PhD in Garden History from Birkbeck College in 2010. Mary, Marchioness of Huntly, an avid botanist and horticulturalist, was the subject of her PhD thesis. Maxine immersed herself in Mary's diaries at a time that her own Christian faith was developing, and became captivated by Mary's intellectual world and her religious journey."

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