Description
Book SynopsisMichie's fresh reading of the marriage plot, and the choice between two women at its heart, shows it to be as much about politics and economics as it is about personal choice.
Trade ReviewA seminal body of outstanding scholarship and a very highly recommended addition to academic library English Literature reference collections and supplemental reading lists. Midwest Book Review An indispensable survey of the figure of the rich woman in the novel of manners from Austen to James... Michie's writing is clear, precise, and lucid. An important work. Essential. Choice Bold, engaging, and richly complicated... It is immensely valuable in calling our attention to the relationship between nineteenth-century marriage plots and the discourses of political economy generally and to the maligned but ubiquitous figure of the heiress in particular, challenging critics today to overcome their own sense of money as a vulgar question. -- Nancy Henry Review of English Studies Michie's book opens up new angles from which to think about the relations between money and marrying in nineteenth-century fiction. -- Rachel Bowlby Times Literary Supplement One of the most valuable pieces of criticism this year. The emphasis and clarity of its writing is a delight in itself. -- Talia Schaffer Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies The mixture of laughter, guilt, and envy that characterizes our culture's response to the unattractive rich woman is fully explored and exorcized in this closely argued study. -- Valerie Sanders Nineteenth-Century Literature This is a valuable study that will be useful to anyone interested in gender and economics in the nineteenth century. -- Patricia Zakreski Modern Language Review The rich development of its themes, no less than its local insights, should place this book high on Victorianists' reading lists. -- Jill Rappoport Victorian Studies This is a sophisticated and thought-provoking study. The Year's Work in English Studies
Table of ContentsPreface: Vulgarity, Wealth, and Gender
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Rich Woman / Poor Woman: An Anthropology of the Nineteenth-Century Marriage Plot
1. Social Distinction in Jane Austen
2. Frances Trollope and the Problem of Appetite
3. Anthony Trollope's "Subtle Materialism"
4. Margaret Oliphant and the Professional Ideal
5. Henry James and the End(s) of the Marriage Plot
Afterword From Pemberley to Manderley
Notes
Bibliography
Index
