By the middle of the nineteenth century much clearly gendered, anti-Catholic literature was produced for the Protestant middle classes. Nineteenth Century Anti-Catholic Discourses explores how this writing generated a series of popular Catholic images and looks towards the cultural, social and historical foundation of these representations. Diana Peschier places the novels of Charlotte Brontë within the framework of Victorian social ideologies, in particular the climate created by rise of anti-Catholicism and thus provides an alternative reading of her work.

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction The Construction of an Anti-Catholic Ideology in the Nineteenth-Century: Sexuality, Gender, Patriarchy and the Discourse of Fear Forgive me Father: The Perception of the Sacrament of Confession as a Means to Control and Debauch Young Girls and Women The Danger of Gliding Jesuits and the Effects of a Catholic Education Lifting the Veil: A Nineteenth-Century Perception of Nuns and Convents Nineteenth-Century Anti-Catholic Discourse in the Brontë's Local Newspaper The Perceived Anti-Catholicism of Charlotte Brontë's Novel, The Professor Jane Eyre : Anti-Catholic or Anti-Christian Novel? Shirley : A Social Novel The Priestcraft of the Book: Representations of Catholicism in Villette Conclusion. A discourse of Fear Engendered by the Rise of Roman Catholicism in Mid Nineteenth-Century England Bibliography and Sources Index