Voice Of Harriet Taylor Mill

The Voice of Harriet Taylor Mill is a work about collaboration: Harriet's life with her lover, friends, and members of her family; Harriet's joint work with John Stuart Mill; and the author's interaction with the reader. Jo Ellen Jacobs explores and expands the concept of biography using Salman Rushdie's analogy of history as a process of "chutnification." She gives Harriet's life "shape and form--that is to say, meaning" in a way that will "possess the authentic taste of truth."

In the first chapter, the first 30 years of Harriet's life are presented in the format of a first-person diary--one not actually written by HTM herself. The text is based on letters and historical context, but the style suggests the intimate experience of reading someone's journal. The second chapter continues the chronological account of HTM until her death in 1858. In an interlude between the first and second chapters, Jacobs pauses to explore Harriet's life with John Stuart Mill; and in the final chapter, she argues persuasively that Harriet and John collaborated extensively on many works, including On Liberty.

"In the first third of this book, Jacobs (Millikin Univ.) presents a biography of Harriet Taylor Mill in the form of a journal. Although the exact words are not Harriet's, Jacobs provides copious footnotes to ground the entries. Next, Jacobs discusses Harriet's relationship with John Stuart Mill. Using as a springboard the concept of a collaborative self, she shows how several of their concerns and positions on various issues arise from the conditions of their shared life. Jacobs then considers the different aspects of Harriet's self, e.g., as daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother. In the final chapter, Jacobs examines Harriet's work with John, arguing for the presence of her input, particularly in Principles of Political Economy and On Liberty. Jacobs's claim that Harriet and John collaborated on much work that bears his name alone may be controversial, but even more contentious is her claim that Harriet suffered from syphilis, having been infected by her first husband, John Taylor. Jacobs's case supporting this provocative claim is strong. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, undergraduates, and graduate students. May also interest some researchers/faculty." --P. R. Sailors, Southwest Missouri State University, 2003mar CHOICE Indiana University Press Indiana University Press

Jo Ellen Jacobs, Professor of Philosophy at Millikin University, is editor of The Complete Works of Harriet Taylor Mill (Indiana University Press 1998) and author of numerous articles on HTM in Presenting Women Philosophers, Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers, and Hypatia's Daughters.

Contents

Prelude

1. The Diary

poems

on marriage and divorce

on education of women

book reviews

on Bentham

ethics

on conformity

on proverbs

poems

on Fox's "Political and Social Anomaly"

on seasons

travel diary

Interlude

What the collaborative self is not

What the collaborative self allowed

role switching

passion

anger

intimacy

blended family

collaborative intellectual work

Reverberations of the collaborative self

connections with subjugated groups

refusal to accept either/or ways of thinking

How did they create and maintain this collaborative self?

Why did they?

2. Operatic Ensembles

After the First Death

Harriet's illness

Caroline Hardy Ley's domestic abuse

Trustee Problem

Religion

Dedication Controversy

John Taylor

Marriage to John

Mrs. Mill

Harriet as daughter

Harriet as mother

Harriet as friend

Harriet as mother, again

3. Joint Work

Why their collaboration has been discounted

Harriet and John's collaboration with others

Evidence of collaboration with each other

Collaboration on Principles of Political Economy

Collaboration on the Revision of Principles of Political Economy

Enfranchisement of Women

Collaboration on Domestic Violence

Collaboration on On Liberty

Conclusion

Appendix: Family Tree

Notes

Bibliography

Index