The four Macdonald sisters were the children of a poor Methodist
minister, lacked a consistent education and yet, between them, grew
up to be the wives of a famous painter (Edward Burne-Jones) and the
President of the Royal Academy (Edward Poynter), and the mothers of
a renowned writer (Rudyard Kipling) and a prime minister (Stanley
Baldwin). At a time of some social mobility, they rose into the
highest circles of national life in Victorian England. In her first
book, the journalist Judith Flanders, has placed the sisters within
their family and domestic context, arguing that women's actual
lives have been sidelined in 'male biographies'. She shows how
these young women, middle-class by the skin of their teeth, married
within their social circle and, given the restricted roles for
women in the Victorian era, used what power they had to bolster
their husbands and children while struggling, with greater or
lesser success, to channel their own talents and beliefs. Judith
Flanders describes the whole social network created by the sisters,
their husbands, children and grandchildren. Male relatives and
friends mainly come out badly, particularly Ruskin, Byrne-Jones and
Kipling with their psychological and sexual foibles, but some of
the women, Janey Morris, for example, are also not spared
criticism. The emphasis on women's lives enables the author to
introduce social and domestic details which would be omitted from a
'male biography', such as gender roles, birth and death customs,
the running of a household, shopping and childcare, as well as
social and historical events which impacted on families, such as
the Boer War. She skilfully interweaves all these complex strands
to produce a gripping and moving narrative which includes generous
quotations from letters and family papers. This is a well-written,
involving and rewarding book. (Kirkus UK)
The Macdonald sisters -- Alice, Georgiana, Agnes and Louisa -- started life among the ranks of the lower-middle classes, with little prospect of social advancement. But as wives and mothers they made a single family of the poet of Empire, Rudyard Kipling, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones, Edward Poynter, President of the Royal Academy, and the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. In telling their remarkable story, Judith Flanders displays the fluidity of Victorian society, and explores the life of the family in the 19th century.
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