Title The female servant and sensation fiction : 'kitchen literature' / Elizabeth Steere, Lecturer, University of West Georgia, USA

Published Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

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Description 1 online resource Contents Introduction: "Kitchen literature" -- "Let nothing ever induce you to read novels": servants and sensationalism in the mid-nineteenth century -- "Merely telling the truth": servants' stories in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights -- "No human being ever was created for this": the servant victim in the works of Wilkie Collins -- "Privileged spies": the criminal servant in Lady Audley's Secret -- "She had her rôle to play": East Lynne and the servant actress -- "We will still be husband and wife": the servant as spouse in Gaskell's The grey woman -- "The stuff of lurid fiction": sensation fiction in the twenty-first century Summary "The Female Servant and Sensation Fiction: 'Kitchen Literature'" explores how the sensation fiction genre popular in the 1860s fits into the canon of nineteenth-century literature and considers how its depiction of gender and class reflects a context of social change. Contemporary critics derided the genre as 'kitchen literature' because of its popularity among the newly literate servant classes, but this term also suggests the prominence of the genre's servant characters. This study reveals the female servant as a key figure who embodies the most 'sensational' aspects of the genre, particularly through her subversion of the Victorian boundaries of class and gender. Examining texts from authors such as Wilkie Collins, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, and Elizabeth Gaskell, it explores the recurring tropes of the servant as a victim, criminal, actress, and spouse or lover. Ultimately, it suggests that, far from the fad of a single decade, sensation fiction has clear canonical origins and its influence is still felt today in Neo-Victorian literature and popular culture Bibliography Includes bibliographical references Notes Print version record Subject English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism Household employees in literature. Valets in literature. Women in literature. Home economics in literature. Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century Popular literature -- Great Britain -- History and criticism Middle class women -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 -- English. Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers -- English. LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. Literature. English fiction Home economics in literature Household employees in literature Literature and society Middle class women Popular literature Valets in literature Women and literature Women in literature Englisch Sensationsroman Dienerin Motiv Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 -- English -- 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899. Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers -- English -- 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899. Literature. Great Britain Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781137365262 1137365269

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