The treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George Eliot

This thesis examines a practice of nineteenth-century novelists which has often been mentioned by critics but never studied in detail - the setting of much of their work in a period a generation or two before the time of writing. Its main focus is on the fiction of George Eliot set in the recent pas...

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Main Author:	Wilkes, Joanne Claire
Published:	University of Oxford 1984
Subjects:	800 English fiction : History and criticism : History in literature : 19th century
Online Access:	http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.350355

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spelling	ndltd-bl.uk-oai-ethos.bl.uk-3503552015-03-19T05:15:04ZThe treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George EliotWilkes, Joanne Claire1984This thesis examines a practice of nineteenth-century novelists which has often been mentioned by critics but never studied in detail - the setting of much of their work in a period a generation or two before the time of writing. Its main focus is on the fiction of George Eliot set in the recent past: Scenes of Clerical Life (1857-58), Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Felix Holt, The Radical (1866), and Middlemarch (1871-72). However I begin by looking briefly at the pioneering novel in the field, Waverley (1814), and go on to discuss three more novels by Scott - Guy Mannering (1815), The Antiquary (1816) and Redgauntlet (1824) - as well as three by Thackeray: Vanity Fair (1847-48), Pendennis (1848-50) and The Newcomes (1853-55). Since I aim to discover the attitudes these writers adopted to the recent past, and conveyed to their first readers, this study involves discussion not only of the periods in which the novels are set, but also of the periods in which they were written, so as to establish the knowledge and preconceptions which the books' early readers brought to bear on the fiction. Where possible I quote the responses of actual contemporary readers, notably those of the early reviewers. This thesis draws attention to the various functions a setting in the recent past could serve in nineteenth-century fiction: to arouse nostalgic feelings for a vanished but remembered past, or sympathy for the people of the past, to point out that change is sometimes more apparent than real, to comment obliquely on contemporary issues, to highlight the unchanging features of human nature and human predicaments, to examine the role of the individual in effecting change.800English fiction : History and criticism : History in literature : 19th centuryUniversity of Oxfordhttp://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.350355http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:dffc8880-93ca-4320-b6c1-f96c75f23f43Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
collection	NDLTD
sources	NDLTD
topic	800 English fiction : History and criticism : History in literature : 19th century
spellingShingle	800 English fiction : History and criticism : History in literature : 19th century Wilkes, Joanne Claire The treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George Eliot
description	This thesis examines a practice of nineteenth-century novelists which has often been mentioned by critics but never studied in detail - the setting of much of their work in a period a generation or two before the time of writing. Its main focus is on the fiction of George Eliot set in the recent past: Scenes of Clerical Life (1857-58), Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Felix Holt, The Radical (1866), and Middlemarch (1871-72). However I begin by looking briefly at the pioneering novel in the field, Waverley (1814), and go on to discuss three more novels by Scott - Guy Mannering (1815), The Antiquary (1816) and Redgauntlet (1824) - as well as three by Thackeray: Vanity Fair (1847-48), Pendennis (1848-50) and The Newcomes (1853-55). Since I aim to discover the attitudes these writers adopted to the recent past, and conveyed to their first readers, this study involves discussion not only of the periods in which the novels are set, but also of the periods in which they were written, so as to establish the knowledge and preconceptions which the books' early readers brought to bear on the fiction. Where possible I quote the responses of actual contemporary readers, notably those of the early reviewers. This thesis draws attention to the various functions a setting in the recent past could serve in nineteenth-century fiction: to arouse nostalgic feelings for a vanished but remembered past, or sympathy for the people of the past, to point out that change is sometimes more apparent than real, to comment obliquely on contemporary issues, to highlight the unchanging features of human nature and human predicaments, to examine the role of the individual in effecting change.
author	Wilkes, Joanne Claire
author_facet	Wilkes, Joanne Claire
author_sort	Wilkes, Joanne Claire
title	The treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George Eliot
title_short	The treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George Eliot
title_full	The treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George Eliot
title_fullStr	The treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George Eliot
title_full_unstemmed	The treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George Eliot
title_sort	treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to george eliot
publisher	University of Oxford
publishDate	1984
url	http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.350355
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The treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George Eliot

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