As published authors themselves, the Wattses were keen readers who read regularly and widely. George's lifelong interest in literature was fuelled by his marriage to Mary, who was his intellectual equal, creative companion and reading partner. She was an avid, cultured and discerning reader who loved sitting in the reading room of the British Museum (M. Watts 1893: 23 August) where she studied the Book of Kells, and would ‘[come] in for breakfast, reading [a] novel’ (M. Watts 1891: 22 October). As part of her husband's circle, Mary had intimate access to some of the most famous, forward-thinking writers of the day, and she was well-acquainted with their works. Her diaries show her familiarity with British, European and non- Western literature, and are filled with (admiring and critical) references to contemporary literary culture. Around 210 books were found in her bedroom (and 78 books in her dressing room) when she died (Limnerslease Inventory 1938, WG).

This chapter explores the Wattses’ collaborative reading practice (in the ‘niche’ designed by Mary at their studio-home) and their readings (as recorded by Mary's diaries), before discussing George's social-realist paintings inspired by contemporary poetry. It focuses specifically on Mary's readings of early feminist writings and on George's paintings provoked by articles and contemporary debates on ‘fallen women’, female suicide and the exploitation of women. I aim to show how the Wattses were influenced by writers engaging with issues at the heart of Victorian feminism, whose views they shared, and to reveal Mary's thoughts on, interactions and dialogues with writers of New Woman fiction. This further reveals the Wattses’ progressive socio-political positions, and especially Mary's keen – if largely private – interest in early feminist writing and culture during her marital years, to which she more actively contributed in widowhood.

The Wattses’ Private Library: Mary's Feminist Readings

In her diaries, Mary documents and discusses the Wattses’ readings in the ‘niche’ (1894–5) (Fig. 6.1): the couple's private reading alcove created and painstakingly decorated by Mary in symbolic painted gesso. Far from being the strictly secret, private space to which Victorian women readers were more typically relegated, the ‘niche’ was a joint reading space at the heart of the Wattses’ Arts and Crafts home, situated beside the hearth in the ‘Red Room’ or sitting room at Limnerslease.