ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Charlotte Smith and Jane West deconstruct the theoretical masculinities in the virtual space of the novel and, drawing on the experience of women as subjects of the real creature man, form the foundations of a new model of masculinity. It shows that Smiths and West's political positions are far more complicated than their broad political categorization can account for. In Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke blasts the French both for mounting a political revolution and for attempting to export its disruptive values. The political upheaval of the revolution translated into social and familial upheaval in France and opened up the possibility of female agency and citizenship. Furthermore Pamela Lloyd suggests that West was committed to serious educational reform for women and used Mary Wollstonecraft's Thoughts on the Education of Daughters almost as a blueprint for The Advantages of Education.
