Title Disease, desire, and the body in Victorian women's popular novels / Pamela K. Gilbert

Published Cambridge, U.K ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1997

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Description 1 online resource (viii, 207 pages) Series Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 11 Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 11 Contents Introduction -- "In the body of the text" : metaphors of reading and the body -- Genre : the social construction of sensation -- M.E. Braddon : sensational realism -- Rhoda Broughton : anything but love -- Ouida : romantic exchange -- Afterword : the other Victorians Summary Popular fiction in mid-Victorian Britain was regarded as both feminine and diseased. Critical articles of the time on fiction and on the body and disease offer convincing evidence that reading was metaphorically allied with eating, contagion and sex. Anxious critics traced the infection of the imperial, healthy body of masculine elite culture by 'diseased' popular fiction, especially novels by women. This book discusses works by three novelists - M.E. Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, and 'Ouida' - within this historical context. In each case, the comparison of an early, 'sensation' novel against a later work shows how generic categorization worked in the context of social concerns to contain anxiety and limit interpretive possibilities. Within the texts themselves, references to contemporary critical and medical literatures resist or exploit mid-Victorian concepts of health, nationality, class and the body Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-205) and index Notes English Print version record Subject English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism Women -- Books and reading -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century Diseases and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century Popular literature -- Great Britain -- History and criticism English fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism Medical fiction -- History and criticism Sensationalism in literature. Human body in literature. Diseases in literature. Desire in literature. LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. Medical fiction Desire in literature Diseases and literature Diseases in literature English fiction English fiction -- Women authors Human body in literature Literature and society Popular literature Sensationalism in literature Women and literature Women -- Books and reading Populaire literatuur. Victoriaanse tijd. Lichamelijkheid. Vrouwen. Ziekte. Great Britain Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book ISBN 0511005202 9780511005206 0511585411 9780511585418

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