Nord, Deborah Epstein. " “Marks of Race”: Gypsy Figures and Eccentric Femininity in Nineteenth-Century Women’s Writing." Victorian Studies. Vol.41 No. 2. Indiana: Indiana University Press, winter 1998. Deborah Nord opens her essay with the declaring statement that nineteenth century literature applies the gypsy figure as the epitome of everything that defies the Victorian English character. She reasons that the gypsy is the perfect inimical figure to be the antithesis of English middle class society. The gypsy was …showed first 75 words of 1137 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1137 total…Nord concludes however that while the women writers of this era were trying to suggest a new pattern of behaviour for the female form they still lacked the foresight or courage to set their ideas forward for in each story. “Sustained identification with the gypsy is problematic, if not impossible” for the heroine as this divergence from the typical Victorian English female remained at the time beyond the limits of what could be considered respectable.