The ‘Invisible Hand’ and British Fiction, 1818–1860: Adam Smith, Political Economy, and the Genre of Realism

261 Pages·2011·1.88 MB·English

by  Eleanor Courtemanche (auth.)

Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture
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‘THE JEW’ IN LATE-VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN CULTURE
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ENGLISH LITERARY SEXOLOGY
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Colette Colligan
THE TRAFFIC IN OBSCENITY FROM BYRON TO BEARDSLEY
Sexuality and Exoticism in Nineteenth-Century Print Culture
Eleanor Courtemanche
THE ‘INVISIBLE HAND’ AND BRITISH FICTION, 1818–1860
Adam Smith, Political Economy, and the Genre of Realism
Stefano Evangelista
BRITISH AESTHETICISM AND ANCIENT GREECE
Hellenism, Reception, Gods in Exile
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CHARLES DICKENS, A TALE OF TWO CITIES AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
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THE FAITHS OF OSCAR WILDE
Catholicism, Folklore and Ireland
Stephanie Kuduk Weiner
REPUBLICAN POLITICS AND ENGLISH POETRY, 1789–1874
Kirsten MacLeod
FICTIONS OF BRITISH DECADENCE
High Art, Popular Writing and the Fin de Siècle
Diana Maltz
BRITISH AESTHETICISM AND THE URBAN WORKING CLASSES, 1870–1900
Catherine Maxwell and Patricia Pulham (editors)
VERNON LEE
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Muireann O’Cinneide
ARISTOCRATIC WOMEN AND THE LITERARY NATION, 1832–1867
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Human Beasts in Western Fiction 1859–1939
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Ana Parejo Vadillo
WOMEN POETS AND URBAN AESTHETICISM
Passengers of Modernity
Phyllis Weliver
THE MUSICAL CROWD IN ENGLISH FICTION, 1840–1910
Class, Culture and Nation
Paul Young
GLOBALIZATION AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION
The Victorian New World Order
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The ‘Invisible Hand’ and
British Fiction, 1818–1860
Adam Smith, Political Economy, and
the Genre of Realism
By
Eleanor Courtemanche
Assistant Professor of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Palgrave
macmillan
© Eleanor Courtemanche 2011
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-29078-5
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First published 2011 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-33158-1 ISBN 978-0-230-30498-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230304987
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Courtemanche, Eleanor, 1968–
The 'invisible hand' and British fiction, 1818–1860 : Adam Smith,
political economy, and the genre of realism / by Eleanor Courtemanche.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. English fiction – 19th century – History and criticism. 2. Economics in
literature. 3. Capitalism in literature. 4. Social problems in literature. 5. Smith,
Adam, 1723–1790 – Influence. 6. Capitalism and literature – Great Britain –
History – 19th century. I. Title.
PR868.E37C68 2011
820.9(cid:2)355—dc22 2011004360
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
For my parents, Regis and Patricia Courtemanche
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Introduction: Capitalist Moral Philosophy, Narrative Technology,
and the Boundaries of the Nation-S tate 1
Part I Reading Adam Smith
1 Imaginary Vantage Points: The Invisible Hand and the
Rise of Political Economy 21
The Wealth of Nations: natural liberty, negative liberty,
and the invisible hand 26
The physiocratic model: geometry and surveillance 38
The ‘History of Astronomy’ and the scientific imagination 44
Beauty, utility, and subjectivity in The Theory of Moral Sentiments 52
Gender, virtue, and the ‘Adam Smith Problem’ 57
From utility to utopia: Smith’s disciples and disciplines 62
Part II Early Nineteenth-C entury Novels and
Invisible Hand Social Theory
2 Omniscient Narrators and the Return of the Gothic in
Northanger Abbey and Bleak House 75
Free indirect discourse and the comedy of Gothic anxiety 80
Dickensian omniscience and the narrator incarnate 99
3 Providential Endings: Martineau, Dickens, and the Didactic
Task of Political Economy 120
Fiction as science: Martineau’s defence of realism and
her gloomy excesses 128
Fiction as anti- science: the revisionary rage of Hard Times 138
4 Ripple Effects and the Fog of War in Vanity Fair 146
Models of market society as incalculably complex 148
From the bowl of rack punch to the edges of the system 155
The fog of war: individual confusion and retrospective delusion 163
vii
viii Contents
5 Inappropriate Sympathies in Gaskell and Eliot 171
‘The view from the place where you stand’: sympathy
for strangers in Mary Barton 176
Emphasis and irony in The Mill on the Floss 186
Conclusion: Realist Capitalism, Gothic Capitalism 195
Notes 198
Bibliography 231
Index 245
Acknowledgements
This book has gone through many incarnations since its days as a compara-
tive literature dissertation that spent several chapters discussing German
protectionism. At Cornell, its best readers included my committee members
Peter Hohendahl, Geoff Waite, Sander Gilman, and Mark Seltzer, as well as
my dissertation reading group comrades Barbara Mennel, Jeff Schneider,
and Dana Luciano.
Some of the many other readers who have given portions of this project
beneficial feedback include John Farrell, David Suchoff, Stacey Margolis,
Talia Schaffer, Jonathan Zittrain, Michael O’Malley, and several anonymous
reviewers at Palgrave and elsewhere. At the University of Illinois, my
Victorianist colleagues Lauren Goodlad and Julia Saville provided multiple
readings and suggestions; I also profited from the sage advice of Dale Bauer,
Lori Newcomb, Curtis Perry, Peter Garrett, Leon Chai, Gillen Wood, and
Tony Pollock. Internal fellowships from the English Department and the
Research Board at the University of Illinois jump-started this project’s final
draft. Erin McQuiston was an amazing summer research assistant. For in-
tellectual discussions and emotional support over the years, I have to thank
Anna Kornbluh, Ayse Celikkol, Carolyn Betensky, Ericka Beckman, Cathy
Jurca, Anna Ivy, Jim Hansen, Renée Trilling, Rob Barrett, Tim Newcomb,
J. B. Capino, Justine Murison, David Wilson-Okamura, Timothy Mennel,
Adriana Estill, Peter Paik, Sunny Vergara, and Jeff Hadler. My undergraduate
students at Colby College, Macalester College, Claremont McKenna College,
and Carleton College, as well as the University of Illinois, helped me work
out which novels really fit into this book. Finally, my editors at Palgrave,
Paula Kennedy and Benjamin Doyle, were constantly helpful; and with
his support, realism, and editorial insight, the series editor Joseph Bristow
was an inspiring model of committed scholarship. Other institutions that
contributed material aid include the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the
Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, and the Huntington Library in
Pasadena.
An early version of Chapter 3 was published as ‘ “Naked Truth is the
Best Eloquence”: Martineau, Dickens, and the Moral Science of Realism’
in English Literary History 73.2 (2006), 383–407, and is reprinted here with
permission.
With his wit, cynicism, great cooking, bibliographic aid, intellectual
creativity, and unfailing devotion, Ted Underwood was my constant loyal
companion. Ted has seen this project evolve over 16 years and five states,
and will be perhaps even happier than I am to see it completed. My sisters
ix