The Match Girl and the Heiress - Hardcover

Winner of the 2015 NAVSA Best book of the Year Award, North American Victorian Studies Association Winner of the 2015 Stansky Prize, North American Conference on British Studies One of HistoryBuff.com's 10 Can't-Miss History Books of 2015 "In The Match Girl and the Heiress, inspired by a cache of private writings that reveal a profound relationship between two women activists, [Koven] delves deep into the historical record to build an intriguing story of cross-class devotion--between the social reformer Muriel Lester and 'a half-orphaned Cockney' factory worker named Nellie Dowell."--Nina Burleigh, New York Times Book Review "[F]ascinating... The great virtue of Koven's approach is his constant probing of surfaces. He is never content simply to mention a school, a hospital, a factory, without examining the policies or commercial pressures, the attitudes of the public, the actual daily round and the experience of those who lived or worked there, asking what it felt like, emotionally and physically... [This] imaginative book, at once an immaculate social and religious history and an intriguing exercise in life-writing, gives both the heiress and the match girl their due."--Jenny Uglow, New York Review of Books "[M]eticulously researched."--Caroline Moorhead, Times Literary Supplement "Rutgers University historian Koven (Slumming) has fashioned a scholarly yet highly readable jewel that tackles the big issues of early-20th-century England in an intimate way. Through the lives of Muriel Lester and Nellie Dowell, he brilliantly illuminates the growth of global capitalism, a revolutionary 'God is love' Christian theology, war and pacifism, feminism and sexuality, and class and gender relations."--Publishers Weekly, starred review "Koven demonstrates how these women changed the world's attitude toward the poor."--Kirkus "Koven's book sets Nellie and Muriel's relationship in the context of the religion and politics of their era... [T]he most memorable parts are about the unique relationship between these two women. It also serves as a timely reminder of how cruel life was for the poor when there was no welfare state to act as a safety net."--Rachel Trethewey, Independent "Koven's book sensitively uses a personal relationship to examine both the hopes and the failures of the attempts to cross class boundaries at a time and place where they ruled supreme."--Margaret Quamme, Columbus Dispatch "The Match Girl and the Heiress is a tale of two intertwined lives, but it is also a story of many places, thoughtfully and richly realized... At the heart of this excellent work is an engrossing, sensitive, and thoughtful story of history, theology, politics, and genuine love."--James Norton, Christian Science Monitor "Seth Koven's new book is a bold, brilliant and deeply moving account of [Lester's and Dowell's] contrasting lives... It is Koven's evident admiration for the imagination and conviction involved in the struggle to live ethically that makes this book such a terrific read."--Nadia Valman, Times Higher Education "Seth Coven who has poured considerable research into this work, has given us much food for thought... The Match Girl And The Heiress deserves a thorough read and is both entertaining and thought-provoking."--Clare O'Beara, Fresh Fiction "Remarkable reading... Muriel and Nellie shine through the pages of The Match Girl and the Heiress."--John Rennie, East End Life "Koven's book is finely researched and detailed as it traces the cross?fertilisation of nonconformist religious movements with those of the early socialist, pacifist and suffragette elements of East London's political radicalism."--The New English Landscape "[An] impressive work of painstaking and imaginative scholarship... Rich, critical, and warm-hearted, The Match Girl and the Heiress will be inspiring and provoking historians of affective emotion, social work, immanence theology, and fraternalism for some time to come."--Geoff A.C. Ginn, Health and History "Koven makes a convincing argument that love and its emotions are worthy of serious consideration within histories of politics of this period... Koven's methodology for filling in the blanks and reconstructing Dowell's life leads to rich and rewarding readings of institutions and other cultural texts."--Angharad Eyre, Journal of Victorian Culture "Congratulations to Seth Koven for his comprehensive research into the history of Kingsley Hall. An academic work and while not a light read, provides a fascinating insight into the beginnings of the labour movement trades unionism, Christian socialism, pacifism, and the fives and times of those who worked with great conviction for better social conditions."--Doreen Kendall, Stone Stories "While it's hard enough to recover the lives of women from centuries past, it's an even greater challenge to recover the lives--the full, complex, interior lives--of the working poor. And when a central figure is at once poor and a woman? That Koven has produced such a vivid and detailed rendering of [Nellie] Dowell's life is remarkable in and of itself... Koven's illuminating readings of [Nellie's] letters form what I would argue is one of the most powerful analyses of an early-century poor woman's interior life... His achievement is significant."--Lisa Rodensky, Women's Review of Books "Koven's book is a detailed and nuanced exploration of sincere attempts by dedicated Christians to find better and more equitable ways to live."--Lynn MacKay, Labour-Le Travail "[The Match Girl and the Heiress] is a model for how micro history can tease out macro historical processes... A beautiful account of a time and a place, and however rich and complex the analysis, its arguments and conclusions are not only accessible to a broad readership but have implications that transcend the narrow interests of historians of modern Britain... [A] wonderful read."--Nadja Durbach, American Historical Review "Seth Koven has done a remarkable job in shining a light on a hitherto hidden aspect of the multi-faceted story of the main protagonists."--Rosemary Taylor, East London History Society Newsletter "Koven combines masterful analysis and compelling narrative to create an unforgettable story of the friendship between Muriel Lester, the wealthy social activist, and Nellie Dowell, a match factory worker, in late Victorian London."--Theresa Kaminski, History Buff "Koven's book will fascinate not only readers interested in the history of this period but anyone who has mused on how to practice a Christian social ethic in a society which seems hostile to it... [The Match Girl and the Heiress] beautifully illustrates both the 'mighty force' of 'Christian revolutionary love' and its inherent limits."--Michael Ledger-Lomas, Books & Culture "[An] absorbing narrative."--Andrew Stone, New Zealand Herald "Seth Koven's The Match Girl and the Heiress ... extends richly into a range of related contexts, from match production to Christian Science. Koven's scholarship is astonishing in its depth and conscientiousness: he proceeds sensitively and ethically, always alert to the limits of interpretation."--Elizabeth Carolyn Miller, Public Books "[An] inventive book."--Helen Rogers, Victorian Studies

Nellie Dowell was a match factory girl in Victorian London who spent her early years consigned to orphanages and hospitals. Muriel Lester, the daughter of a wealthy shipbuilder, longed to be free of the burden of money and possessions. Together, these unlikely soulmates sought to remake the world according to their own utopian vision of Christ's teachings. The Match Girl and the Heiress paints an unforgettable portrait of their late-nineteenth-century girlhoods of wealth and want, and their daring twentieth-century experiments in ethical living in a world torn apart by war, imperialism, and industrial capitalism. In this captivating book, Seth Koven chronicles how each traveled the globe--Nellie as a spinster proletarian laborer, Muriel as a well-heeled tourist and revered Christian peacemaker, anticolonial activist, and humanitarian. Koven vividly describes how their lives crossed in the slums of East London, where they inaugurated a grassroots revolution that took the Sermon on the Mount as a guide to achieving economic and social justice for the dispossessed. Koven shows how they devoted themselves to Kingsley Hall--Gandhi's London home in 1931 and Britain's first "people's house" founded on the Christian principles of social sharing, pacifism, and reconciliation--and sheds light on the intimacies and inequalities of their loving yet complicated relationship. The Match Girl and the Heiress probes the inner lives of these two extraordinary women against the panoramic backdrop of shop-floor labor politics, global capitalism, counterculture spirituality, and pacifist feminism to expose the wounds of poverty and neglect that Christian love could never heal.