ABSTRACT
This article examines the personal correspondence of three Victorian English women, Anna Mary Howitt, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon and Bessie Rayner Parkes as sources of self-development. Drawing on the concept of ‘epistolary education’ (SIMON-MARTIN, 2016, 2016a, 2020), it explores the letter as an educational instrument - education understood in the sense of the German neo-humanist concept Bildung (the lifelong process of self-development). It suggests that these three Friends not only discussed themes such as love and marriage via letters but also reached agreements with their suitors and family that respected their matrimonial needs and professional expectations. Given that it is underpinned by an analysis of the epistolary voice of Bessie almost exclusively, this article also includes an epistemological reflection upon how to tackle the question of ‘archival silence’.
Key words:
Bildung; self-development; letters; epistolary education; archival silence