This first volume of an informal trilogy introduces the recurring settings of Rummidge University and Euphoria State and the characters Philip Swallow, a mild-mannered British professor of English literature, and Morris Zapp, a brash American scholar and literary critic. This… Read More ›
In this roman à clef, the author contrasts Victorian repression with the freer attitudes, values, and behaviors of the 1920s. The novel’s protagonist is Willie Ashenden, a representation of Maugham himself. Ashenden, a writer, is friends with another writer, Alroy… Read More ›
The Secret History of Queen Zarah and the Zarazians proved to be Mary Delarivière Manley’s first success, following the unimpressive productions of two of her dramas. Her story proved popular enough to follow with a sequel, also in 1705. A… Read More ›
Thomas Love Peacock published his first novel, Headlong Hall, anonymously, reflecting in it his dislike of progress and all of its “new-fangled” ideas. In what would become a regular approach for Peacock, Headlong Hall presents a satiric discussion in Platonic… Read More ›
When Robert S. Hichens published his roman à clef, or novel with a key, The Green Carnation, he joined others in mimicking the famous style of Oscar Wilde, arguably England’s best-known writer at the end of the 19th century. Wilde,… Read More ›
When George Meredith published his 1885 novel, Diana of the Crossways, women readers welcomed his heroine as representative of recent social reforms. The novel reflects its era’s obsessive interest in the breakdown of standards, which had been part of a… Read More ›
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