Arguably Emma is one of the greatest and earliest of the genre - after all, in the end they are all about learning womanly virtues and an independence which is in keeping with their wifely destinies. My gut feeling is that the genre of such books for girls coincides with the opening up of the frontiers (including the British Empire in that) and the need for resourceful, educated wives who could cope with what it threw at them but still know their place. There's no suggestion Mary will strike out on her own, after all, just become the sort of British woman who won't fade and die if sent out to the Colonies.
Interesting that you refer to What Katy Did. Most reasonably-educated British women of our generation know the book (I adored the sequels too and bitterly regret giving away Clover and >i>In The High Valley) but virtually no American women of roughly my age seem to know of it, or the author. Did you encounter it before going to Canada by any chance?
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Interesting that you refer to What Katy Did. Most reasonably-educated British women of our generation know the book (I adored the sequels too and bitterly regret giving away Clover and >i>In The High Valley) but virtually no American women of roughly my age seem to know of it, or the author. Did you encounter it before going to Canada by any chance?