Victorian Renovations of the Novel: Narrative Annexes and the Boundaries of Representation (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, Series Number 15)

ISBN: 0521021472

Author: Keen, Suzanne

Condition: New

This study of narrative technique in Victorian novels introduces the concept of "narrative annexes" whereby unexpected characters, impermissible subjects and plot-changing events enter fictional worlds that otherwise exclude them, challenging Victorian cultural and literary norms. Original readings of novels by Charlotte Bront, Dickens, Disraeli, Hardy, Kingsley, Trollope and Wells show these writers negotiating the boundaries of representation to reveal subjects (notably sexuality and social class) that contemporary critics sought to exclude from the realm of the novel.