In The Victorian Novel of Adulthood, Rebecca Rainof confronts the conventional deference accorded the bildungsroman as the ultimate plot model and quintessential expression of Victorian nation building. The novel of maturity, she contends, is no less important to our understanding of narrative, Victorian culture, and the possibilities of fiction.
Reading works by Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Henry James, John Henry Newman, and Virginia Woolf, Rainof exposes the little-discussed theological underpinnings of plot and situates the novel of maturity in intellectual and religious history, notably the Oxford Movement. Purgatory, a subject hotly debated in the period, becomes a guiding metaphor for midlife adventure in secular fiction. Rainof discusses theological models of gradual maturation, thus directing readers' attention away from evolutionary theory and geology, and offers a new historical framework for understanding Victorian interest in slow and deliberate change.
| ISBN: | 9780821421789 |
| Publication date: | 9th September 2015 |
| Author: | Rebecca Elise Rainof |
| Publisher: | Ohio University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 264 pages |
| Series: | Series in Victorian Studies |
| Genres: |
Literature: history and criticism |
In The Victorian Novel of Adulthood, Rebecca Rainof confronts the conventional deference accorded the bildungsroman as the ultimate plot model and quintessential expression of Victorian nation building. The novel of maturity, she contends, is no less important to our understanding of narrative, Victorian culture, and the possibilities of fiction.
Reading works by Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Henry James, John Henry Newman, and Virginia Woolf, Rainof exposes the little-discussed theological underpinnings of plot and situates the novel of maturity in intellectual and religious history, notably the Oxford Movement. Purgatory, a subject hotly debated in the period, becomes a guiding metaphor for midlife adventure in secular fiction. Rainof discusses theological models of gradual maturation, thus directing readers' attention away from evolutionary theory and geology, and offers a new historical framework for understanding Victorian interest in slow and deliberate change.
The Victorian Novel of Adulthood features in the following genres: Literature: history and criticism
The Victorian Novel of Adulthood is available in Hardback
The Victorian Novel of Adulthood was written by Rebecca Elise Rainof and published by Ohio University Press
The Victorian Novel of Adulthood has 264 pages
Yes it is part of Series in Victorian Studies series