Sickly Scholars and Healthy Novels: The Classical Scholar in Victorian Fiction

Author(s)
Hale, Elizabeth
Publication Date
2010
Abstract
This paper argues that major nineteenth-century British novelists promote the novel as the dominant national literary form, in direct competition with classical forms, such as the epic. Because of this agenda, some novelists castrate, cripple, or dehumanize the figure of the scholar of antiquity, as a way of symbolically rejecting ancient genres. The primary focus is on two novels of faith and doubt by women novelists: George Eliot's 'Middlemarch' (1872-3), and Mary Augusta Ward's 'Robert Elsmere' (1888), novels which make great capital out of presenting and taming sickly, deathly, impotent, and sinister classicists.
Citation
International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 17(2), p. 219-243
ISSN
1874-6292
1073-0508
Link
Language
en
Publisher
Springer
Title
Sickly Scholars and Healthy Novels: The Classical Scholar in Victorian Fiction
Type of document
Journal Article
Entity Type
Publication

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