{"product_id":"creating-character-theories-of-nature-and-nurture-in-victorian-sensation-fiction-9781526171818","title":"Creating Character: Theories of Nature and","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis book explores the ways in which the two leading sensation authors of the 1860s, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Wilkie Collins, engaged with nineteenth-century ideas about personality formation and the extent to which it can be influenced either by the subject or by others. Innovative readings of seven sensation novels explore how they employ and challenge Victorian theories of heredity, degeneration, inherent constitution, education, upbringing and social circumstance. Far from presenting a reductive depiction of ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’, Braddon and Collins show the creation of character to be a complex interplay of internal and external factors. Drawing on material ranging from medical textbooks, to sociological treatises, to popular periodicals, \u003ci\u003eCreating character \u003c\/i\u003eshows how sensation authors situated themselves at the intersections of established and developing, conservative and radical, learned and sensationalist thought about how identity could be made and modified.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘There is much to admire about Ifill's project and its execution. The archival work that grounds it is extensive and thorough. The contexts within which she places these novels are well-chosen and deftly depicted; her study of the theories of mind and personhood to which Braddon and Collins respond amounts to a small intellectual history of its own. Ifill's close readings are careful and attentive.’\u003cbr\u003eMarta Figlerowicz is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and English at Yale University, Review 19\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘The ‘Queen of the Circulating Library’, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and her ‘literary father’, Wilkie Collins, conquered the 1860s reading public in Britain and beyond with novels that defined sensation fiction: a genre concerned with ‘current and provocative issues [ … such as] class relations, gender roles, the diagnosis and treatment of insanity, educational reform, and the ethos of self-help’ [offering ] …  a convincing account of Braddon and Collins’s engagement with the multifarious notions of character formation in the Victorian period, Ifill’s monograph is a valuable addition to the study of sensation fiction.’\u003cbr\u003eJames Green, University of Exeter, British Society for Literature and Science\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘By drawing on serialized novels as well as many journal articles from the period, Ifill contextualizes the various iterations of determinism found in popular culture and deftly links Collins’s and Braddon’s works to this larger cultural conversation.’\u003cbr\u003eAshton Foley-Schramm, \u003ci\u003eVictorian Periodicals Review,\u003c\/i\u003e Volume 52, Number 1, Spring 2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I have found Creating Character to be a very interesting read, one which would be a great addition to the bookshelves of its intended audience: those interested in nineteenth-century society and literature. Ifill’s secondary sources are incredibly thorough and may be used as a handy tool for those looking to explore and study sensation fiction and its relationship with science and psychology further.'\u003cbr\u003eThe Wilkie Collins Journal\u003c\/p\u003e -- .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction  \u003cbr\u003e Part I: Self-control, willpower and monomania           \u003cbr\u003e1. Basil and No Name  \u003cbr\u003e2. John Marchmont’s Legacy\u003cbr\u003ePart II: Heredity and degeneration\u003cbr\u003e3. The Lady Lisle\u003cbr\u003e4. Armadale\u003cbr\u003ePart III: Education, environment and circumstance\u003cbr\u003e5. Man and Wife\u003cbr\u003e6. Lost for Love \u003cbr\u003eConclusion\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Manchester University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51041039647063,"sku":"9781526171818","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781526171818.jpg?v=1750948709","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/creating-character-theories-of-nature-and-nurture-in-victorian-sensation-fiction-9781526171818","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}