Reviewing Sex: Gender and the Reception of Victorian Novels PDF
Preview Reviewing Sex: Gender and the Reception of Victorian Novels
REVIEWING SEX Reviewing Sex Gender and the Reception of Victorian Novels Nicola Diane Thompson Senior Lecturer in the Department of English Kingston University MACMILLAN ©Nicola Diane Thompson 1996 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-62217-9 ISBN 978-0-230-37622-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230376229 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 To Caroline and Georgina Contents List of Plates viii Acknowledgements lX Illustrations: front covers of three leading Victorian periodicals X Introduction 1 1 Reviewing and Writing: Sex and Gender 8 2 The "Virile Creator" versus the "Twaddlers Tame and Soft": Charles Reade's It Is Never Too Late to Mend 25 3 The Unveiling of Ellis Bell: Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights 42 4 "Something both More and Less than Manliness": Anthony Trollope's Reception 66 5 "The Angel in the Circulating Library": Charlotte Yonge's The Heir of Redclyffe 87 Conclusion 108 Appendix: Victorian Periodicals-Reputation, Readership, and Circulation 120 Notes 124 Works Cited and Consulted 143 Index 161 vii List of Plates 1 Charles Reade, "Something Like a Novelist", from Once a Week, 20 January 1872. 2 Charles Reade at his writing table, by Charles Mercier (reproduced courtesy National Portrait Gallery). 3 Charlotte Yonge's writing desk in her room at Elderfield (reproduced courtesy W. T. Greene). 4 Charlotte Yonge aged 20, by George Richmond, R.A. (reproduced courtesy National Portrait Gallery). 5 Group of contemporary writers: George MacDonald, J. A. Froude, WilkieCollins,AnthonyTrollope, W.M. Thackeray, Lord Macaulay, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens. viii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my family, colleagues, former teachers, and friends - all of whom, in different ways, have made this book possible. Two of my former teachers, R. T. Jones of the University of York and Jim Cogan of Westminster School, are principally responsible for my decision to pursue literary studies in general and Victorian liter ature in particular. I am grateful to each of them as well as to subse quent teachers and colleagues for providing me with inspirational role models. Many people have read and commented on numerous drafts and revisions of this book over the last few years, and I don't think I could have written it without them. Walter Reed's support and intellec tual engagement from the project's inception have been invaluable. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's faith in the potential of this work sustained me at some difficult moments; I'm grateful for her intellectual sup port throughout, and in particular for her suggestions on the Introduction. Thanks also to Jerome Beaty for advice on planning the research, parameters, and methodology of the book. The following people have made the last few years much easier with their encour agement and their helpful comments on final drafts: Martin Danahay, Tim Thompson, Tim Ray lor, Ellen Gainor, David Faulkner, and, most of all, Thorn Bunting. And I would also like to thank John Sitter for his inspirational wit at the 1993 Convention of the Modem Language Association. A grant from the English-Speaking Union allowed me to conduct research at the British Museum Library and the London Library, and I am grateful for their assistance. I am also indebted to Marie Nitschke of Emory University Library for her generous help with literary detec tive work at the early stages of this project, when I was feeling over whelmed by the task of identifying and collecting so many Victorian book reviews and articles. I would like to thank Tim Farmiloe and Charmian Hearne of Macmillan, as well as Niko Pfund of New York University Press, for their faith in the book project. · A version of Chapter 3 appeared in Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 24, no. 4 (1995), and a version of Chapter 4 appeared in Victorian Literature and Culture, 22 (1995). I thank the publishers of these journals for permission to reprint. ix
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