These autobiographies span the century and cover a wide range of classes and professions. Among the authors are women of the gentry, the merchant class, the lower bureaucracy and the serf class. They include writers, a journalist, an actress in the provincial theater and two physicians. Their memoirs show their fierce engagement in the debate over woman’s nature, her duties and responsibilities, her upbringing, and her place in society. Each autobiography is introduced and annotated by Toby Clyman and Judith Vowles, who also provide a general introduction that situates these writings within the Russian and Western autobiographical traditions.
ISBN: 0300067542
Publisher: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS