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Abstract
I argue that Cassandra (1860) by Florence Nightingale is a seminal text in the canon of nineteenth-century women writers. I examine the influences upon Nightingale that shaped the creation of this radical essay: the muscular Christianity movement of mid-Victorian England, Romanticism, her religious beliefs, and Charlotte Bronts novel Shirley (1849). These forces of influence blend to form a revolutionary essayboth in message and formthat argues for the release of women from the shackles of enforced idleness. Cassandras influence upon later female writers, namely Ray Strachey and Virginia Woolf, is evident in the relationships between Cassandra and Stracheys The Cause and Woolfs A Room of Ones Own. Noting the interrelationships of influence surrounding this essay, I maintain that Cassandra must be recognized as an integral text in studying the evolution of womens writing.