Product Description

Hilary Fraser provides a comprehensive and thorough survey of English prose in the nineteenth century which draws from a wide variety of fields including art, literary theory and criticisim, biography, letters, journals, sermons, and travel reportage. Through these works the cultural, social, literary and political life of the twentieth century - a period of great intellectual activity - can be charted, discussed and assessed.

For the first time, an inclusive critical survey of nineteenth-century non-fiction is presented, that traces the century's ideological and cultural upheavals as they are registered in the literary textures of some of its most widely read and influential writings.The book explores the relations between writers who are generally perceived as occupying different discursive spheres, for example between John Stuart Mill, Florence Nightingale and Mrs Beeton; between Cardinal Newman, Elizabeth Gaskell and Hannah Cullwick; and between Charles Darwin, David Livingstone and Henry Mayhew. The establishment and development of different genres and their interactions over the century are clearly mapped.

The genre of the periodical essay, a distinctively modern and flexible form catering to the mass readership, is the subject of the introduction, and then more specialist fields are discussed, covering scientific writing, travel and exploration literature, social reportage, biography, autobiography, journals, letters, religious and philosophical prose, political writing and history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1274225 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Textbook Binding
• 456 pages

Review
"This book is an invaluable resource which confers a unifying, frequently provocative, perspective on nineteenth century prose, surprising in its detail and diversity....It is impossible in the space of this review to do justice to the richness of this book in the sheer amount of information conveyed and the wealth of ideas generated in its juxtapositions of texts. The scholarly apparatus of the book is faultless....There are excellent bibliographies for each section, full biographies on individual authors together with selected editions of their works and selected criticism and, finally, a decent index."

Contemporary Review