ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises the story of the emergence of the female missionary character and narrative in early nineteenth-century religious life writing; the contestations and adaptations made of this character and narrative by missionary women, religious tract writers and novelists over the course of the nineteenth century; how the female missionary figure and narrative was important for the development of Victorian ideals of femininity and the entrenchment of separate spheres ideology; and how, despite the inherent problem of the character’s heroism lying in her self-sacrifice, the female missionary character was foundational for the feminisms of the fin de siècle and the early twentieth century.
