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

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Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture General Editor: Joseph Bristow, Professor of English, UCLA Editorial Advisory Board: Hilary Fraser, Birkbeck College, University of London; Josephine McDonagh, Kings College, London; Yopie Prins, University of Michigan; Lindsay Smith, University of Sussex; Margaret D. Stetz, University of Delaware; Jenny Bourne Taylor, University of Sussex Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture is a new monograph series that aims to represent the most innovative research on literary works that were produced in the English- speaking world from the time of the Napoleonic Wars to the fin de siècle. Attentive to the his- torical continuities between ‘Romantic’ and ‘Victorian’, the series will feature studies that help scholarship to reassess the meaning of these terms during a century marked by diverse cultural, literary, and political movements. The main aim of the series is to look at the increasing influ- ence of types of historicism on our understanding of literary forms and genres. It reflects the shift from critical theory to cultural history that has affected not only the period 1800–1900 but also every field within the discipline of English literature. All titles in the series seek to offer fresh critical perspectives and challenging readings of both canonical and non-canonical writ- ings of this era. Titles include: Eitan Bar-Yosef and Nadia Valman (editors) ‘THE JEW’ IN LATE-VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN CULTURE Between the East End and East Africa Heike Bauer ENGLISH LITERARY SEXOLOGY Translations of Inversions, 1860–1930 Luisa Calè and Patrizia Di Bello (editors) ILLUSTRATIONS, OPTICS AND OBJECTS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERARY AND VISUAL CULTURES Deirdre Coleman and Hilary Fester (editors) MINDS, BODIES, MACHINES, 1770–1930 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 Margot Finn, Michael Lobban and Jenny Bourne Taylor (editors) LEGITIMACY AND ILLEGITIMACY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY LAW, LITERATURE AND HISTORY John Gardner POETRY AND POPULAR PROTEST Peterloo, Cato Street and the Queen Caroline Controversy Yvonne Ivory THE HOMOSEXUAL REVIVAL OF RENAISSANCE STYLE, 1850–1930 Colin Jones, Josephine McDonagh and Jon Mee (editors) CHARLES DICKENS, A TALE OF TWO CITIES AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Jarlath Killeen 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 Decadence, Ethics, Aesthetics Muireann O’Cinneide ARISTOCRATIC WOMEN AND THE LITERARY NATION, 1832–1867 David Payne THE REENCHANTMENT OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY FICTION Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot and Serialization Julia Reid ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, SCIENCE, AND THE FIN DE SIÈCLE Virginia Richter LITERATURE AFTER DARWIN Human Beasts in Western Fiction 1859–1939 Anne Stiles (editor) NEUROLOGY AND LITERATURE, 1860–1920 Caroline Sumpter THE VICTORIAN PRESS AND THE FAIRY TALE Sara Thornton ADVERTISING, SUBJECTIVITY AND THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY NOVEL Dickens, Balzac and the Language of the Walls 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 Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–333–97700–2 (hardback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England 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 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion 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, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-33158-1 ISBN 978-0-230-30498-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230304987 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. 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

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