Reading Daughters' Fictions 1709-1834: Novels and Society from Manley to EdgeworthCambridge University Press, 1996 M03 14 - 287 pages It has been argued that the eighteenth century witnessed a decline in paternal authority, and the emergence of more intimate, affectionate relationships between parent and child. In Reading Daughters' Fictions, Caroline Gonda draws on a wide range of novels and non-literary materials from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in order to examine changing representations of the father-daughter bond. She shows that heroine-centred novels, aimed at a predominantly female readership, had an important part to play in female socialization and the construction of heterosexuality, in which the father-daughter relationship had a central role. Contemporary diatribes against novels claimed that reading fiction produced rebellious daughters, fallen women, and nervous female wrecks. Gonda's study of novels of family life and courtship suggests that, far from corrupting the female reader, such fictions helped to maintain rather than undermine familial and social order. |
Contents
Fictions of accident? Representations of incest in Manley | 38 |
Richardson | 66 |
Sarah Scott and tests | 105 |
the Sins of the Fathers in Gothic | 140 |
from Elizabeth Inchbald to Mary Brunton | 174 |
Her fathers daughter? The life and fictions of Maria | 204 |
Notes | 239 |
259 | |
283 | |
Other editions - View all
Reading Daughters' Fictions 1709-1834: Novels and Society from Manley to ... Caroline Gonda No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
argues Atalantis Austen Belinda Blandy's Bradshaigh Burney Burney's Butler Camilla Caroline Cecilia century Chapone chapter Charlotte Charlotte Charke child Cinyras Clarissa criticism dear death desire Doody Dorriforth edited eighteenth eighteenth-century Elizabeth Ellen emotional Evelina father and daughter father-daughter incest female filial duty Frances Burney Further references given after quotations Gothic fiction Gothic novel Grandison Harlowe Harriet heart Helen heroine husband Inchbald Jane Jane Austen John Keymer Kowaleski-Wallace Lady Letters London Lord Lovelace Maria Edgeworth marriage marry Mary Blandy Mary Brunton Mary Shelley Mathilda Memoirs Millenium Hall Miss Milner moral mother Mulso murder narrative natural never novel obedience Oxford University Press passion paternal authority paternal power patriarchal pleasure Radcliffe's rape reader reading references are given relationship Review Richard Lovell Richard Lovell Edgeworth Richardson Romance Samuel Richardson Sarah Scott scene sexual Sir Charles social suggests tears tenderness Villars vols wife woman women writing young