As the idea of citizenship became more inclusive in the nineteenth century, England confronted the problem of those who seemed less fit for the responsibilities of political power. In a liberal socie
Gilbert (English, U. of Florida) introduces a dozen contributed chapters viewing London from multiple perspectives: e.g. that of urban developers, cultural studies looking to geography to re-contextua
Popular fiction in mid-Victorian Britain was regarded as both feminine and diseased. Critical articles of the time on fiction and on the body and disease offer convincing evidence that reading was metaphorically allied with eating, contagion and sex. Anxious critics traced the infection of the imperial, healthy body of masculine elite culture by 'diseased' popular fiction, especially novels by women. This book discusses works by three novelists - M. E. Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, and 'Ouida' - within this historical context. In each case, the comparison of an early, 'sensation' novel against a later work shows how generic categorization worked in the context of social concerns to contain anxiety and limit interpretive possibilities. Within the texts themselves, references to contemporary critical and medical literatures resist or exploit mid-Victorian concepts of health, nationality, class and the body.
In Victorian Skin, Pamela K. Gilbert uses literary, philosophical, medical, and scientific discourses about skin to trace the development of a broader discussion of what it meant to be human in the ni
An important sensation novel, Cometh Up as a Flower made Rhoda Broughton's reputation and fortune while also attracting harsh criticism. Nell LeStrange, the heroine, is torn between duty to her family
This volume brings together essays from a variety of literary perspectives which examine the works of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, a journal editor, author of over 80 novels during the Victorian period, an
