The Diary of Elizabeth Lee

Book excerpt: Personal diaries provide rare glimpses into those aspects of the past that are usually hidden from view, and the diary of Elizabeth Lee (1868–?) is no exception to this rule. Elizabeth’s father was a draper and outfitter in Birkenhead and during the twenty-five year span of Lee’s diary which began in 1884, she lived at home with her family while simultaneously traveling to both sides of the Mersey without supervision, making the diary an unusually revealing portrait of middle-class female life in Victorian society. Accompanied by a detailed introduction and an analysis of the diary itself, as well as a glossary relating to key people mentioned in its pages, The Diary of Elizabeth Lee is a rare firsthand account of adolescent life in Victorian Britain.