"In The Match Girl and the Heiress, inspired by a cache of private writings that reveal a profound relationship between two women activists, [Koven] delves deep into the historical record to build an intriguing story of cross-class devotion鈥攂etween the social reformer Muriel Lester and 'a half-orphaned Cockney' factory worker named Nellie Dowell."鈥擭ina Burleigh, New York Times Book Review
"[F]ascinating. . . . The great virtue of Koven's approach is his constant probing of surfaces. He is never content simply to mention a school, a hospital, a factory, without examining the policies or commercial pressures, the attitudes of the public, the actual daily round and the experience of those who lived or worked there, asking what it felt like, emotionally and physically. . . . [This] imaginative book, at once an immaculate social and religious history and an intriguing exercise in life-writing, gives both the heiress and the match girl their due."鈥擩enny Uglow, New York Review of 快色直播
"[M]eticulously researched."鈥擟aroline Moorhead, Times Literary Supplement
"Rutgers University historian Koven (Slumming) has fashioned a scholarly yet highly readable jewel that tackles the big issues of early-20th-century England in an intimate way. Through the lives of Muriel Lester and Nellie Dowell, he brilliantly illuminates the growth of global capitalism, a revolutionary 'God is love' Christian theology, war and pacifism, feminism and sexuality, and class and gender relations."鈥�Publishers Weekly
"Koven demonstrates how these women changed the world's attitude toward the poor."鈥�Kirkus
"Koven's book sets Nellie and Muriel's relationship in the context of the religion and politics of their era. . . . [T]he most memorable parts are about the unique relationship between these two women. It also serves as a timely reminder of how cruel life was for the poor when there was no welfare state to act as a safety net."鈥擱achel Trethewey, Independent
"Koven's book sensitively uses a personal relationship to examine both the hopes and the failures of the attempts to cross class boundaries at a time and place where they ruled supreme."鈥擬argaret Quamme, Columbus Dispatch
"The Match Girl and the Heiress is a tale of two intertwined lives, but it is also a story of many places, thoughtfully and richly realized. . . . At the heart of this excellent work is an engrossing, sensitive, and thoughtful story of history, theology, politics, and genuine love."鈥擩ames Norton, Christian Science Monitor
"Seth Koven's new book is a bold, brilliant and deeply moving account of [Lester's and Dowell's] contrasting lives. . . . It is Koven's evident admiration for the imagination and conviction involved in the struggle to live ethically that makes this book such a terrific read."鈥擭adia Valman, Times Higher Education
"Seth Coven who has poured considerable research into this work, has given us much food for thought. . . . The Match Girl And The Heiress deserves a thorough read and is both entertaining and thought-provoking."鈥擟lare O'Beara, Fresh Fiction
"Remarkable reading. . . . Muriel and Nellie shine through the pages of The Match Girl and the Heiress."鈥擩ohn Rennie, East End Life
"Koven's book is finely researched and detailed as it traces the cross鈥慺ertilisation of nonconformist religious movements with those of the early socialist, pacifist and suffragette elements of East London's political radicalism."鈥�The New English Landscape
"[An] impressive work of painstaking and imaginative scholarship. . . . Rich, critical, and warm-hearted, The Match Girl and the Heiress will be inspiring and provoking historians of affective emotion, social work, immanence theology, and fraternalism for some time to come."鈥擥eoff A.C. Ginn, Health and History
"Koven makes a convincing argument that love and its emotions are worthy of serious consideration within histories of politics of this period. . . . Koven's methodology for filling in the blanks and reconstructing Dowell's life leads to rich and rewarding readings of institutions and other cultural texts."鈥擜ngharad Eyre, Journal of Victorian Culture
"Congratulations to Seth Koven for his comprehensive research into the history of Kingsley Hall. An academic work and while not a light read, provides a fascinating insight into the beginnings of the labour movement trades unionism, Christian socialism, pacifism, and the fives and times of those who worked with great conviction for better social conditions."鈥擠oreen Kendall, Stone Stories
"While it's hard enough to recover the lives of women from centuries past, it's an even greater challenge to recover the lives鈥攖he full, complex, interior lives鈥攐f the working poor. And when a central figure is at once poor and a woman? That Koven has produced such a vivid and detailed rendering of [Nellie] Dowell鹿s life is remarkable in and of itself. . . . Koven's illuminating readings of [Nellie's] letters form what I would argue is one of the most powerful analyses of an early-century poor woman's interior life. . . . His achievement is significant."鈥擫isa Rodensky, Women's Review of 快色直播
"Koven's book is a detailed and nuanced exploration of sincere attempts by dedicated Christians to find better and more equitable ways to live."鈥擫ynn MacKay, Labour-Le Travail
"[The Match Girl and the Heiress] is a model for how micro history can tease out macro historical processes. . . . A beautiful account of a time and a place, and however rich and complex the analysis, its arguments and conclusions are not only accessible to a broad readership but have implications that transcend the narrow interests of historians of modern Britain. . . . [A] wonderful read."鈥擭adja Durbach, American Historical Review
"Seth Koven has done a remarkable job in shining a light on a hitherto hidden aspect of the multi-faceted story of the main protagonists."鈥擱osemary Taylor, East London History Society Newsletter
"Koven combines masterful analysis and compelling narrative to create an unforgettable story of the friendship between Muriel Lester, the wealthy social activist, and Nellie Dowell, a match factory worker, in late Victorian London."鈥擳heresa Kaminski, History Buff
"Koven's book will fascinate not only readers interested in the history of this period but anyone who has mused on how to practice a Christian social ethic in a society which seems hostile to it. . . . [The Match Girl and the Heiress] beautifully illustrates both the 鈥榤ighty force' of 鈥楥hristian revolutionary love' and its inherent limits."鈥擬ichael Ledger-Lomas, 快色直播 & Culture
"[An] absorbing narrative."鈥擜ndrew Stone, New Zealand Herald
"Seth Koven's The Match Girl and the Heiress . . . extends richly into a range of related contexts, from match production to Christian Science. Koven's scholarship is astonishing in its depth and conscientiousness: he proceeds sensitively and ethically, always alert to the limits of interpretation."鈥擡lizabeth Carolyn Miller, Public 快色直播
"[An] inventive book."鈥擧elen Rogers, Victorian Studies
"Koven's beautifully written and exquisitely researched book illuminates, with brilliance and great perception, issues of class, capitalism, empire, gender, and love in early twentieth century Britain."鈥擩ane Shaw, Stanford University
"A brilliantly told tale of the unlikely love of two women divided by class but empowered by the ideals and practice of radical Christianity. This 'intimate history' transforms conventional narratives about charity, class, gender, and labor in the early twentieth century."鈥擫ynn Hollen Lees, University of Pennsylvania
"Seth Koven's luminous account of the unlikely chemistry between Muriel Lester (self-abasing slumming lady) and Nellie Dowell (self-improving match factory girl) sheds new light on their shared milieu of Edwardian Christian radicalism: a counterculture of religious modernism founded on a theology of love, with revolutionary opportunities for pacifism, feminism, and anti-imperialism. A rare and brilliant history of the ethical subject."鈥擫eela Gandhi, Brown University
"This powerful, moving, and innovative book tells the story of the relationship between two women鈥攐ne a 'grande dame of global pacifism and social justice' and the other a 'Cockney cosmopolitan' who worked as a match girl in the United Kingdom and abroad. Koven brilliantly achieves exactly what he sets out to do: dissolve the boundaries between 'lives' and 'histories.'"鈥擠eborah Epstein Nord, 快色直播 University
"This is a beautifully written and researched book, one that will stand as one of the best books in modern British history for years to come. The Match Girl and the Heiress is destined to become an instant classic. There is no other book like it."鈥擲haron Marcus, author of Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England
"How ought one to live in a society defined by inequality? Through his subjects, Nellie Dowell and Muriel Lester, Koven tells a detective story of the heart with deep resonance for today's debates about poverty and wealth, class and empire, Christianity and capitalism, gender formation and same-sex desire, the welfare state and voluntarism. The Match Girl and the Heiress is a methodologically and conceptually inspiring work, with a fine sense of empathy, balanced by shrewdly calibrated assessments of motives and consequences."鈥擠eborah Cohen, author of Family Secrets: Shame and Privacy in Modern Britain
