Description
Book SynopsisAs a literary genre, the sentimental novel reached the height of its vogue in the 1770s and 1780s and was still popular as the eighteenth century drew to a close. This volume presents a comprehensive exploration of the sentimental novel in the eighteenth century, beginning with its origins in the so-called amatory fiction of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Chapters from leading scholars combine the various aspects and contexts of the genre, from politics, slavery, women writers, and the Gothic to the sentimental novel in America, France and Germany, with historically informed close readings of novels by writers including Samuel Richardson (16891761), Laurence Sterne (171368) and Jane Austen (17751817). This volume demonstrates that the sentimental novel continues to engage readers and critics and that, far from being obsolete or only of antiquary interest, it remains a vibrant and exciting area of study.
Trade Review'… this collection is well worth having on one's shelf, offering as it does much to both new and established scholars concerning the long history, complex aesthetics, and ambivalent politics of the sentimental narrative mode. So much has been written over the past few decades on the sentimental novel in English that it would be reasonable to think little new could be added and yet this coherent collection produced by scholars at the top of their game offers fresh perspectives, often eloquent readings, and a lot for the rest of us to build on.' Stephen Ahern, Project Muse
'… impressive and informative …' Colette Davies and Ruby Hawley-Sibbett, TYWES
'This collection is a thoughtful and comprehensive extension of the scholarship, as it not only brings together various strands of criticism but also builds on them in imaginative ways. Rivero asserts that 'far from being obsolete or only of antiquary interest, the sentimental novel remains a vibrant and exciting area of study.' The strength of this enterprising collection proves Rivero's claim, and scholars will no doubt turn to this volume to enrich future studies of the sentimental novel.' Philip Trotter, The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats
Table of ContentsIntroduction Albert J. Rivero; 1. The sentimental novel and politics Gary Kelly; 2. Sensible readers: experiments in feeling in early prose fiction by women Ros Ballaster; 3. Reading for the sentiment: Richardson's novels Bonnie Latimer; 4. The virtuous in distress: David Simple, Amelia, Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph Barbara M. Benedict; 5. Sentiment from abroad: French novels after 1748 Gillian Dow; 6. Sterne's sentimental empiricism Jonathan Lamb; 7. Virtue not rewarded: The Man of Feeling and The Sorrows of Young Werther Maureen Harkin; 8. Slavery and the novel of sentiment Brycchan Carey; 9. Sentiment and the Gothic: failures of emotion in the novels of Mrs Radcliffe and the Minerva Press Hannah Doherty Hudson; 10. The sentimental novel in America: The History of Emily Montague, Charlotte Temple, The Power of Sympathy, The Coquette Joseph F. Bartolomeo; 11. Novel anachronisms: Sophia Lee's The Life of a Lover and Frances Burney's The Wanderer Melissa Sodeman; 12. Jane Austen and the sentimental novel Albert J. Rivero; Select bibliography; Index.
