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Fathers in Victorian Fiction
Editor: Natalie McKnight
Date Of Publication: Oct 2011
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-3291-5
Isbn: 1-4438-3291-X
This book examines the changing roles of fathers in the nineteenth century as seen in the lives and fiction of Victorian authors. Fatherhood underwent unprecedented change during this period. The Industrial Revolution moved work out of the home for many men, diminishing contact between fathers and their children. Yet fatherhood continued to be seen as the ultimate expression of masculinity, and being involved with the lives of one’s children was essential to being a good father. Conflicting and frustrating expectations of fathers and the growing disillusionment with other paternal authorities such as church and state yielded memorable portrayals of fathers from the best novelists of the age.

The essays in this volume explore how Victorian authors (the Brontës, Dickens, Gaskell, Trollope, Eliot, Hardy, and Elizabeth Sewall and Mary Augusta Ward) responded to these tensions in their lives and in their fiction. The stern Victorian father cliché persisted, but it was countered by imaginative, involved, albeit faulty fathers and surrogate fathers. This volume poses fathering questions that are still relevant today: What does it mean to be a good father? And, with distrust in patriarchal authorities continuing to increase, are there any sources of authority left that one can trust?

Natalie McKnight is Professor of Humanities and Associate Dean for Research and Development at the College of General Studies, Boston University, USA. She has published two books on Victorian fiction with Palgrave/St. Martin’s: Idiots, Madmen, and Other Prisoners in Dickens and Suffering Mothers in Mid-Victorian Novels. Currently, she is a co-editor of Dickens Studies Annual and Archivist and Subscription Manager of Dickens Quarterly.

“The collection Fathers in Victorian Fiction provides stimulating, informed discussions of Victorian views regarding diverse models of fatherhood in fiction and actual life: biological, adoptive, surrogate, and spiritual, the last of these being especially relevant in the cases of clergymen who acted paternally with any children of their own and also with their congregants. Focusing on the complexities inherent in this very basic human role, the book’s eleven complementary essays consider ways in which the Brontës, Dickens, Gaskell, Trollope, George Eliot, Hardy, and two minor religious novelists explore the duties, pleasures, and influences of fatherhood. A major interest throughout the volume is the extent to which Victorian fictional fathers reflect historical social changes that extend to our own time.”

– Stanley Friedman, co-editor of Dickens Studies Annual and author of Dickens’s Fictions: Tapestries of Conscience

“A stimulating collection of essays, which makes a welcome addition to the field of gender studies. Major and less widely studied authors – Mary Augusta Ward and Elizabeth Sewell – together with Gaskell and Trollope, come under scrutiny with oeuvres, paired or single texts the object of rewarding attention, as contributors consider how shifting historical and sociological changes play into the constantly evolving role of the Victorian father. Excellent reading for students and general readers.”

– David Paroissien, editor of Dickens Quarterly, Blackwell’s Companion to Charles Dickens and general editor, with Susan Shatto, of Helm’s Dickens Companions series

Price Uk Gbp: 39.99
Price Us Usd: 59.99

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)

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