Brilliant book on relationships among siblings in 19th century middle-class British families and their emotional repercussions. The author describes these large families as locations in which the young grew up in constant interaction with their siblings, which had a major effect on their emotional development. She describes love, identification and support as well as rivalries, but her main point is that growing up in such a family forced children to learn how to interact with others considerably earlier and to a better extent than in contemporary small families.
The author does discuss the particular problems created by conceptualization of gender at that time and place, which left sisters in a supporting role to their brothers, with no consideration to abilities or personality. Still, she also sees locations of power for women within extended families and sources of support from among their siblings. Still, while highly critical of discrimination inherent to time and place, she seem somewhat nostalgic for the almost unquestioning support from siblings as well as from numerous uncles, aunts and cousins, which is available in societies in which large families are the norm.