Russian and West European Women, 1860-1939: Dreams, Struggles, and Nightmares by Marcelline J. Hutton (review)

attention to the historical construction ofclass that distinguishes her scholarship from much of the criticism concerned with the nineteenth-century novel. In her epilogue, she attempts to provide "an ending and a beginning" to her account of the nineteenth-century working-class woman (166). Her conclusion to the study focuses on George Eliot's oft-forgotten Felix Holt (1866); Johnson specifically explains how this late-Victorian narrative effectively "excludes the possibility of politically engaged working-class women" (171). While this "ending" offers helpful closure to her study, her brieflook at late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century narratives by working-class women is notably underdeveloped. She does, ofcourse, recognize that this cursory survey of recent memoirs by working-class women is only "tentative" and acknowledges that "much more needs to be investigated here that lies beyond the scope ofmy study" (187). Johnson should be applauded for considering neglected works like Emma Smith's A Cornish Waif'sStory (1 956) and Kathleen Woodward'sJippingStreet: Childhoodin a London Slum (1928), but this final component ofher book is nonetheless inferior to the rest ofher excitingscholarship in Hidden Hands—an impressive critical text that perpetually exposes "the uncanny resonance between literature and history" (173). % Marcelline J. Hutton. Russian and West European Women, 1860-1939: Dreams, Struggles, andNightmares. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001. 468p. Tatyana Novikov University of Nebraska-Omaha A subject ofcritical discourse for several decades, women's social history has been of growing interest to scholars, students, and the general public in the West. In Russia, this interest coincided with the period of transition from totalitarianism to democracy. The transformation ofnational culture is now matched by a surge ofstudies on history and culture of Russian women, an interest to which die recent release of Marcelline Hutton's Russian and West European Women has contributed . Hutton's study has the merit not only of conducting a very serious examination ofwomen's social history in Russia, England, Germany, and France, over almost one hundred years, but also ofproviding a vivid comparison oftheir social, educational, economic, and political situations. In her study, Hutton accomplishes some formidable tasks, exploring her subject in impressive depth and detail. She begins by claiming that her volume will move beyond the existing corpus ofwork on Russian and West European women to "provide a gender and class analysis within a broad chronological framework" 100 + ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW + SPRING 2003 Reviews (1). It is an intriguing proposition. To achieve her objective, Hutton presents her readers with a plethora of sources: statistical data, documents, and memoirs, as well as current research and works offiction, tracing patterns in women's lives and revealing what was unique and what was similar to women of particular classes and countries. This wide-range study adopts the methodological formula of comparative analysis governing many similar works. In proceeding, however, Hutton rises above her formula to produce a book more sophisticated and more interesting than the reader might expect. As the title implies, the volume demonstrates convincingly that women of different classes and nationalities shared the same dreams, struggles, and nightmares in the areas ofeducation, employment, political involvement , and family life. In adding to our understanding oftheir problems and sensibilities , Hutton's book contributes in a significant way to generating a composite portrait of the European woman in 1860-1939. This clearly written and solidly researched monograph produces a captivating overall picture of its primary subject shown against a backdrop packed with the political, economic, cultural, and intellectual tenor of the times. The result is the most detailed analysis of women's lives and of various factors that influenced them. The Introduction is an impeccably precise presentation ofthe tenets ofthe book outlining purpose, principles, argument, and the justification for choice of the material to be discussed. Hutton tells us that "central to women's lives were class, nationality, and religion" (1). Setting the parameters ofher position, she provides an overview ofthe investigation and uses these three categories as points ofentry into her analyses. In her central body ofwork, Hutton analyzes women's social, economic, educational , and political situations, covering in twelve chapters the entire chronological range under investigation. She divides this range into three periods: 18601914 , the 1920s, and the...