Description
Book SynopsisClementina, Viscountess Hawarden (1822-1865) produced over eight hundred photographs during her all-too-brief life. This book contemplates the experience of the photograph and considers the relationship of Hawarden's works to the concept of the female fetish, to voyeurism, mirrors and lenses, and twins and doubling.
Trade Review“The author’s perspectives on Victorian and contemporary issues of intimacy, exhibition, maternity, sexuality, just to name a few of the themes in play here, open up new perspectives for the reader, who thus feels inspired to stop and dream for a while, hoping to do so as acutely and as inventively as Mavor does.”—Joseph Litvak, author of
Strange Gourmets: Theory, Sophistication, and the Novel“Handsomely written and carefully researched, this book will have large appeal. It is a real treasure—indeed, unforgettable.”—Richard Howard
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Preface: “Only, my secret’s mine, and I won’t tell”
An Erotic Note
A Queer Note
Introduction: Adolescent Reverie
Reduplicative Desires
“In Which the Story Pauses a Little”
Sapphic Narcissa
Collecting Loss
Postscript
List of Illustrations
Notes
Works Cited
Index 211
