Dickens to Hardy 1837-1884 - (Transitions) by Julian Wolfreys (Hardcover)

About the Book

An authoritative survey of Victorian fiction which explores the relationship between national identity, cultural memory and narratives of the past in major Victorian novels.

Book Synopsis

Dickens to Hardy, 1837-1884 charts the transitions of particular Victorian literary and cultural concerns across nearly fifty years of the Nineteenth century. With each chapter focusing on readings of particular novels, Julian Wolfreys questions how the Victorian middle classes identified themselves in their modernity and discusses how literature mediated the construction of identities through notions of cultural memory. Additionally, two chapters focus on particular genres, the gothic and the political, in the novel tradition of the Nineteenth century.

From the Back Cover

This authoritative survey examines how the Victorian middle-classes perceived themselves, through analyses of the literature of the period. Asking how the middle classes distinguished themselves from their forbears, Julian Wolfreys reads in detail major novels by:
- Charles Dickens
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- Wilkie Collins
- George Eliot
- Thomas Hardy.

Wolfreys explores the novelists' constructions of modernity, national identity and their understanding of 'becoming historical' in distinction from that of previous generations. He offers illuminating close readings of texts and examines narratives set in a recent past in order to investigate the role of cultural memory in the making of identity. Also featuring a helpful Chronology and an Annotated Bibliography to aid further study, this stimulating guide encourages readers to reassess the work of key writers of the nineteenth century.

About the Author

JULIAN WOLFREYS is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Drama at Loughborough University, UK. He was previously Professor in Literature at the University of Florida, USA.
JULIAN WOLFREYS is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Drama at Loughborough University, UK. He was previously Professor in Literature at the University of Florida, USA.