Aiming at True Happiness: Conduct Literature and British Women’s Ideas of Happiness during the Late Eighteenth Century

There has been significant research into women's homosocial relationships during the eighteenth century, with particular attention being given to the nature and social functions of women's friendships.Additionally, there is excellent scholarly literature on both courtship and marriage, as well as singleness.However, there is little work that explores the intersections between these subjects.Primary source material such as women's letters and life writing, as well as novels and conduct literature, demonstrate that women's understandings and experiences of homosocial relationships during early adolescence and young adulthood were intricately connected with the life choices they made in their pursuit of happiness.Working between social and cultural history, this article will explore how women's homosocial relationships shaped their standards for love, romance, courtship and marriage, and positioned them to seek long-term happiness in their lives, either within or without marriage. ***Rest not content with the Prospect of [ease arising from possible temporal Felicity], but fix on a more eligible Point of View, by aiming at True Happiness; and, take my Word, that can never be found in a married State, without the three essential Qualifications Virtue, good Nature, and good Sense, in an Husband remember,