Revolution and the Form of the British Novel, 1790-1825: Intercepted Letters, Interrupted Seductions

by Nicola J. Watson

Overview

Whatever happened to the epistolary novel? This is an innovative account of the disintegration of one of the principal narrative forms of the eighteenth century in favor of more authoritarian, third-person models designed to underwrite a new version of British national identity in the Napoleonic period. It offers provocative political readings of authors including Jane Austen, Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Smith, Maria Edgeworth, Walter Scott, Charles Maturin, William Hazlitt, and Lord Byron.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198112976
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/24/1994
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	5.69(w) x 8.75(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

Northwestern University

Editorial Reviews

"In this wide-ranging study, Watson is more interested - and, certainly, convincing and lucid - in demonstrating the way the errant letter evolves, all the while ‘retaining something of its scandalously sexualized nature'."—Eighteenth-Century Fiction

"Densely argued, clever in its interpretation of texts - autobiographical, biographical as well as novelistic - and displaying considerable sophistication in the deployment of contemporary narrative terminology."—History of European Ideas

"...an important contribution....Witty, elegant and well-researched..."—The Wordsworth Circle

"An exceptionally rich and challenging account."—Choice

From the Publisher