Love and Eugenics in the Late Nineteenth Century: Rational Reproduction and the New Woman

The idea of eugenics - human selective breeding - originated in Victorian Britain in response to the problem of the urban poor. It was championed by New Woman writers, who sought to restore the health of the nation, arguing that through rational reproduction middle-class women could regenerate the British imperial race. Exploring the pervasiveness of eugenic ideas in fin-de-siècle Britain, and recontextualizing New Woman fiction, Love and Eugenics in the Late Nineteenth Century makes a radical contribution to nineteenth-century studies, establishing the intimate relations between early feminism and eugenics.