Sarah Scott (1) (1723–1795)
Author of Millenium Hall
For other authors named Sarah Scott, see the disambiguation page.
Works by Sarah Scott
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1723-09-21
- Date of death
- 1795-11-03
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- social reformer
novelist
historian
translator - Relationships
- Montagu, Elizabeth Robinson (sister)
- Short biography
- Sarah Scott, née Robinson, was born in York and raised mostly in Cambridge, England, a daughter of a distinguished family. She was the younger sister of Elizabeth Robinson Montagu. She was well educated and took a great interest in literature and politics. In 1751, she made a brief, and apparently unhappy, marriage of convenience to George Lewis Scott. After her family "rescued" her from the marriage, Sarah Scott went to live with Lady Barbara Montagu (unrelated) and began to lead an active life of charity work and writing. Sarah worked to relieve the poverty of women and tried to start a utopian community with Elizabeth and friends. She wrote books to earn money and published them anonymously, but they were popular in their day. Her works reflect feminist concerns, such as the problems of poor and disabled women, and the lack of opportunities for females in 18th-century England. Her six novels included A Description of Millenium Hall (1762), which idealized her utopian ideals. Although they lost popularity in the 19th century, Sarah Scott's works have recently been reprinted.
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- York, Yorkshire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Bath, Somerset, England, UK - Place of death
- Old Catton, Norfolk, England, UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- England, UK
Members
Discussions
Group read: Millenium Hall by Sarah Scott in Virago Modern Classics (June 2015)
Reviews
A Description of Millennium Hall and the Country Adjacent, Together With the Characters of the Inhabitants and Such Historical Anecdotes and Reflectio by Sarah Scott
I found a copy of 'Millenium Hall' in a library sale for 50p. I hadn't previously heard of it, or so I thought, and was intrigued by concept of an 18th century feminist utopia. Then I noticed the poor average rating on goodreads of 2.8, so didn't actually read it until libraries had been closed for four months. It's hard for me to predict what I'll enjoy reading at the moment, as my brain is emphatically not thriving. In this case, I got lucky and found 'Millenium Hall' much more fun than show more expected. I appreciated the gently subversive use of a familiar framing mechanism for utopian literature. By chance, a man (and his annoying friend, in this case) stumbles upon an alternative community and is given a tour and detailed explanation of it. He then repeats this in letter form to somebody else. In this specific instance, our interloper gets into a carriage accident and discovers a bucolic country mansion in which a community of women live virtuous and philanthropic lives. Coincidentally, one of the founders of this lovely place is his cousin, who politely invites him and his annoying friend Lamont to stay for a few days and learn about the place.
It was fascinating to read a utopia that appears emphatically pre-Enlightenment in sensibility and grounded securely in Christianity, quite different to Victorian novels like [b:Erewhon|516570|Erewhon (Erewhon , #1)|Samuel Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1175460304l/516570._SY75_.jpg|924128]. The community depicted resembles a Protestant version of a convent that takes charity, frugality, and chastity very seriously. The women who run it manage their wealth communally and use it to employ and support poor children, the elderly, and disabled people. They establish what would now be termed social enterprises and offer young couples financial support to get married and set up a household. Food, education, and healthcare are provided for all. As the introduction, written in 1985, asserts, this compassion is presented in a manner that seems rather patronising and pious today. As I read the text, though, I was conscious of two other ways of looking at this.
Firstly, within the book itself, this tone is one taken by women conversing politely with uninvited male guests who they very probably want to go away. It reminded me of occasions in my twenties when I wanted a man to stop talking and leave, so I talked in as boring and formal a manner as possible about the spatial planning system. Perhaps I am projecting my 21st century sense of irony onto 18th century sincerity. Nonetheless, within the historical context women would obviously have to display unimpeachable Christian virtue in order to justify the radical step of refusing to get married. Secondly, the obligation to be suitably grateful that is placed upon those the women of 'Millenium Hall' helped reminded me of how, under current grotesque wealth inequality, poor, disabled, and elderly people are expected to be just as grateful for basic subsistence. The support depicted here seems accompanied by fewer conditions and less suspicion than social security benefits in the UK and US. Not to mention the neoliberal theme that governments should be grateful that billionaires are willing to create precarious low paid jobs and workers should be grateful to have them. In other words, there is still a utopian cast to the economics of 'Millenium Hall' aside from the feminist elements. It's a very pastoral preindustrial utopia, however, in which cities are painted solely as sources of dissipation and vice.
The style of writing is of course very much of its time, with long involved bouquets of subclauses. I liked that; others may not. The edition I read, as mentioned, included a 35 year old introduction that left unmentioned what to me seemed like obvious subtext. Consider this quote:
This is especially interesting in light of comments elsewhere in the book on how important it is for the higher classes to set a good example to each other and the lower classes by exemplary behaviour. Of the four 'Millenium Hall' ladies whose biographies are recounted, Mrs Morgan is the only one who has actually been married. She is blackmailed into a marriage she does not want and forced by her unpleasant husband to cut ties with her beloved friend Miss Mancel, because her husband doesn't want his wife to love anyone more than him. Once he's on his deathbed, the two reunite and after his death live happily together at Millenium Hall. Lady Mary Jones and Miss Selvyn likewise prefer the company of their female friends. This might all be romantic friendship, but they could also be a happy commune of lesbians. I was unsurprised to find discussion of 'Millenium Hall' in chapter 4 of [b:Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present|260412|Surpassing the Love of Men Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present|Lillian Faderman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387740528l/260412._SY75_.jpg|2881900] when I checked. Indeed, it is cited as, 'the most complete fictional blueprint for conducting a romantic friendship'. So I have come across mention of it before, but didn't remember as I read Faderman's book back in 2014.
Either way, I enjoyed the fact that 'Millenium Hall' is essentially a lecture by a woman to men about the superior moral virtue and financial management of women without men. Given some of the boneheaded emails I've received recently from male colleagues, there was something vindicating about this high tone. It is also notable that the narrator and Lamont actually listen, with only brief interruptions. The message that solidarity between women, across social classes and generations, is essential as men cannot be relied upon retains relevance today. Despite all the trappings of virtue, duty, and Christian worship, the Millenium Hall community still has a certain appeal as its founders navigate Georgian womanhood in quietly radical ways. show less
It was fascinating to read a utopia that appears emphatically pre-Enlightenment in sensibility and grounded securely in Christianity, quite different to Victorian novels like [b:Erewhon|516570|Erewhon (Erewhon , #1)|Samuel Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1175460304l/516570._SY75_.jpg|924128]. The community depicted resembles a Protestant version of a convent that takes charity, frugality, and chastity very seriously. The women who run it manage their wealth communally and use it to employ and support poor children, the elderly, and disabled people. They establish what would now be termed social enterprises and offer young couples financial support to get married and set up a household. Food, education, and healthcare are provided for all. As the introduction, written in 1985, asserts, this compassion is presented in a manner that seems rather patronising and pious today. As I read the text, though, I was conscious of two other ways of looking at this.
Firstly, within the book itself, this tone is one taken by women conversing politely with uninvited male guests who they very probably want to go away. It reminded me of occasions in my twenties when I wanted a man to stop talking and leave, so I talked in as boring and formal a manner as possible about the spatial planning system. Perhaps I am projecting my 21st century sense of irony onto 18th century sincerity. Nonetheless, within the historical context women would obviously have to display unimpeachable Christian virtue in order to justify the radical step of refusing to get married. Secondly, the obligation to be suitably grateful that is placed upon those the women of 'Millenium Hall' helped reminded me of how, under current grotesque wealth inequality, poor, disabled, and elderly people are expected to be just as grateful for basic subsistence. The support depicted here seems accompanied by fewer conditions and less suspicion than social security benefits in the UK and US. Not to mention the neoliberal theme that governments should be grateful that billionaires are willing to create precarious low paid jobs and workers should be grateful to have them. In other words, there is still a utopian cast to the economics of 'Millenium Hall' aside from the feminist elements. It's a very pastoral preindustrial utopia, however, in which cities are painted solely as sources of dissipation and vice.
The style of writing is of course very much of its time, with long involved bouquets of subclauses. I liked that; others may not. The edition I read, as mentioned, included a 35 year old introduction that left unmentioned what to me seemed like obvious subtext. Consider this quote:
As the ladies' conduct in this particular was uncommon, I could not forbear telling them, that I was surprised to find so great encouragement given to matrimony by persons whose choice shewed them little inclined in its favour.
"Does it surprise you," answered Mrs. Morgan smiling, "to see people promote that in others which they themselves do not choose to practise? We consider matrimony as absolutely necessary to the good of society; it is a general duty; but as, according to all ancient tenures, those obliged to perform knight's service, might, if they chose to enjoy their own firesides, be excused by sending deputies to supply their places; so we, using the same privilege substitute many others, and certainly much more promote wedlock than we could do by entering into it ourselves. This may wear the appearance of some devout persons of a certain religion who, equally indolent and timorous, when they do not choose to say so many prayers as they think their duty, pay other for supplying their deficiencies."
This is especially interesting in light of comments elsewhere in the book on how important it is for the higher classes to set a good example to each other and the lower classes by exemplary behaviour. Of the four 'Millenium Hall' ladies whose biographies are recounted, Mrs Morgan is the only one who has actually been married. She is blackmailed into a marriage she does not want and forced by her unpleasant husband to cut ties with her beloved friend Miss Mancel, because her husband doesn't want his wife to love anyone more than him. Once he's on his deathbed, the two reunite and after his death live happily together at Millenium Hall. Lady Mary Jones and Miss Selvyn likewise prefer the company of their female friends. This might all be romantic friendship, but they could also be a happy commune of lesbians. I was unsurprised to find discussion of 'Millenium Hall' in chapter 4 of [b:Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present|260412|Surpassing the Love of Men Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present|Lillian Faderman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387740528l/260412._SY75_.jpg|2881900] when I checked. Indeed, it is cited as, 'the most complete fictional blueprint for conducting a romantic friendship'. So I have come across mention of it before, but didn't remember as I read Faderman's book back in 2014.
Either way, I enjoyed the fact that 'Millenium Hall' is essentially a lecture by a woman to men about the superior moral virtue and financial management of women without men. Given some of the boneheaded emails I've received recently from male colleagues, there was something vindicating about this high tone. It is also notable that the narrator and Lamont actually listen, with only brief interruptions. The message that solidarity between women, across social classes and generations, is essential as men cannot be relied upon retains relevance today. Despite all the trappings of virtue, duty, and Christian worship, the Millenium Hall community still has a certain appeal as its founders navigate Georgian womanhood in quietly radical ways. show less
Published in 1762, Millennium Hall describes a utopian society of women living much more autonomously than was the norm at that time. The women of Millennium Hall are all unmarried, and the circumstances of their arrival often were related to the death of a father or other source of financial support. The novel is loosely drawn from events in author Sarah Scott's life. Scott's father failed to provide her with financial support and, after separating from her husband (an extremely rare event show more in those days), she lived with a close female friend as part of a community of intellectuals seeking social reform.
The novel is made up of a series of narratives telling the stories of various women at Millennium Hall. It is written in a didactic style, intended to provide "moral instruction" to the reader -- and specifically, male readers. While some of the women's stories were interesting, the preachy tone and flowery language wore on me after a while.
I read this as part of a project in the Virago Modern Classics group, to read VMCs in original order of publication. The group read helped me appreciate this book for its place in the history of women's writing, but I can't say I enjoyed it. show less
The novel is made up of a series of narratives telling the stories of various women at Millennium Hall. It is written in a didactic style, intended to provide "moral instruction" to the reader -- and specifically, male readers. While some of the women's stories were interesting, the preachy tone and flowery language wore on me after a while.
I read this as part of a project in the Virago Modern Classics group, to read VMCs in original order of publication. The group read helped me appreciate this book for its place in the history of women's writing, but I can't say I enjoyed it. show less
Kelly's introduction is most worthwhile, offering contexts and critical perspective on Scott's C18 fictional female utopia and its custodians.
quite boring but i realize it's interesting to read something written in 1762.
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- Works
- 6
- Members
- 287
- Popularity
- #81,378
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 34