Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the changing roles of fathers in the nineteenth century as seen in the lives and fiction of Victorian authors. Fatherhood underwent unprecedented change during this period. The Industrial Revolution moved work out of the home for many men, diminishing contact between fathers and their children.
Trade Review“Alongside stimulating, succinct introductory and concluding essays by McKnight, the volume provides nine diverse but complementary chapters which analyze the varying responses to, and models of, Victorian fatherhood in a range of fictional sources . . . Fathers in Victorian Fiction, then, offers a rich mix of topics and approaches. Given such diversity, Natalie McKnight has done an excellent job in forming the collection’s varied essays into a coherent whole.”– Chris Louttit, Radboud University Nijmegen, in Dickens Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 3, September 2012, pp. 293-295, p. 293-294“The volume is a worthy addition to any bookshelf.”– Carolyne Van Der Meer, Brontë Studies, Vol. 37 No. 2, April 2012, pp. 167-170, p. 170.“The collection Fathers in Victorian Fiction provides stimulating, informed discussions of Victorian views regarding diverse models of fatherhood in fiction and actual life: biological, adoptive, surrogate, and spiritual, the last of these being especially relevant in the cases of clergymen who acted paternally with any children of their own and also with their congregants. Focusing on the complexities inherent in this very basic human role, the book’s eleven complementary essays consider ways in which the Brontës, Dickens, Gaskell, Trollope, George Eliot, Hardy, and two minor religious novelists explore the duties, pleasures, and influences of fatherhood. A major interest throughout the volume is the extent to which Victorian fictional fathers reflect historical social changes that extend to our own time.”– Stanley Friedman, co-editor of Dickens Studies Annual and author of Dickens’s Fictions: Tapestries of Conscience“A stimulating collection of essays, which makes a welcome addition to the field of gender studies. Major and less widely studied authors – Mary Augusta Ward and Elizabeth Sewell – together with Gaskell and Trollope, come under scrutiny with oeuvres, paired or single texts the object of rewarding attention, as contributors consider how shifting historical and sociological changes play into the constantly evolving role of the Victorian father. Excellent reading for students and general readers.”– David Paroissien, editor of Dickens Quarterly, Blackwell’s Companion to Charles Dickens and general editor, with Susan Shatto, of Helm’s Dickens Companions series
