The Victorian novel /

This survey challenges conventional ways of viewing the Victorian novel. The author explores the extremely varied and often experimental prose fiction of the period, paying attention to contemporary bestsellers as well as to major literary works. He reminds the reader that most Victorian novelists h...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: James, Louis, 1933-
Corporate Author: Wiley InterScience (Online service)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2006.
Series:Blackwell guides to literature.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
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Summary:This survey challenges conventional ways of viewing the Victorian novel. The author explores the extremely varied and often experimental prose fiction of the period, paying attention to contemporary bestsellers as well as to major literary works. He reminds the reader that most Victorian novelists had their imaginations shaped not by high Victorianism, but by the ideals and sensibility of the Romantic period, and suggests that their work therefore embodies a tension between idealism and a new materialist objectivity. The volume is based on the premise that a broad understanding of the Victorian period powerfully assists our understanding of its prose fiction. For this reason, the author not only provides overviews of the historical and social contexts of the Victorian novel, but also considers its relationship to historical, religious and biographical writing. The literary achievements of major novelists receive individual entries, while a section on topics considers issues such as colonialism, scientific speculation, the psychic and the supernatural, and working-class reading.
Item Description:Electronic resource.
Physical Description:xii, 249 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages [225]-240) and index.
ISBN:047077584X
9780470775844
DOI:10.1002/9780470775844