‘All pent up together’: Representations of Friendship in Fictions of Girls’ Boarding‐Schools, 1680‐1800

Abstract

AbstractStudies of female education have emphasised the contexts of criticism and anxiety that surrounded girls’ boarding‐schools in the eighteenth century. Histories of education, however, have not considered fictional representations of these schools, which, as the century progressed, suggest an increasing acceptance of the schools and offer striking defences of the importance and significance of female friendship. This article sketches a history of representations of girls’ schools across the period 1680‐1800 in order to show this development and to position Sarah Fielding's The Governess as a key influence in this history.