By Dan Read
My son found this book in a Free Library and gave it to me after he read it. I opened it and read the introduction and discovered that Eliza Fay (1755-1816) was an exact contemporary of Jane Austen. I had to read it then!
In Austen’s novels, her “three or four families” are gentry. The work that genteel women did was primarily sewing and embroidering. Mrs. Bennet gets huffy at the suggestion that her daughters actually have to cook. A less affluent woman like Mrs. Grant does her housework by consulting with her cook, and even the lowly Mrs. Price doesn’t seem to do much other than whine about the incompetence of her servants. This book provides an interesting contrast: it is the story of a woman who was active in the business world and traveled over the world without a husband.
Not much is known about Eliza Fay’s early life. It appears she came from a lower middle-class family and married an Irish barrister. They hoped to make their fortune in India. When her husband foolishly challenged the colonial government and then engaged in a flagrant affair, their marriage ended and Eliza was thrown on her own devices. She did not repine, but opened a millinery shop in Calcutta, traded in muslin, and ran a school. She was active in business on her own. The Indian part of the letters focuses on the British colonial society, naturally, and says little about the native society, but it was still very interesting throughout.
Fay also describes her sea voyages at length. They were long and dangerous (Mrs. Norris was right to worry about Sir Thomas) and nowhere near as comfortable as Mrs. Croft’s descriptions might lead us to believe. She saw a great deal of the world, from the passes of Switzerland to a trek across the Egyptian desert, with sea voyages up and down the coasts of Africa. The captains were both gentlemanly and crude or incompetent (contrary to Austen’s generally laudatory treatment of the Navy). She was feted at the fashionable balls of Calcutta and spent time as a prisoner of Indians fighting the British.
Fay’s was not the country intellectual retirement of Austen or Anne Elliot, nor the swooning passivity of Emily in Udolpho. She was forced onto her own resources and able to actively run businesses and seek help when she needed it. She was able to survive essentially as an equal in the world of men. This book gave me an intriguing look at what a determined woman of the time could do.