Suffragist Beatrice Harraden had written short stories and one novel before publishing Ships That Pass in the Night, but that work brought her fame as a writer. An example of sentimental fiction, it depicts the doomed love of two patients… Read More ›
Victorian feminism
Analysis of Eliza Lynn Linton’s The Rebel of the Family
First serialized in Temple Bar in 1880, Eliza Lynn Linton’s The Rebel of the Family has enjoyed renewed interest in the 21st century due to the efforts of feminist critics who have focused on the novel’s several controversial issues. While… Read More ›
Analysis of George Gissing’s The Odd Women
As did most novels by George Gissing, The Odd Women focused on working-class poor in an uncaring society. The novel opens with six happy sisters, living with their widower physician father. He believes that women should not have to worry… Read More ›
Analysis of Charles Reade’s Griffith Gaunt
Charles Reade, a playwright as well as a novelist, became well known for his attacks against human injustice and his pleas for compassion through his fiction, of which Griffith Gaunt became a strong example. Reade’s fiction proved melodramatic and dealt… Read More ›
Analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
The story of the events that led Mary Shelley to write her Frankenstein story is now almost as well known as the plot itself. The tale began to take shape in 1816 as a result of ghost-story-telling sessions held among… Read More ›
Analysis of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy’s fourth novel, Far from the Madding Crowd, became his first commercially successful venture, allowing him to leave his vocation of architecture and write full time. First published as a serial in The Cornhill Magazine from January through December… Read More ›
Analysis of Anthony Trollope’s Can You Forgive Her?
Serialized between January 1864 and August 1865, Anthony Trollope’s first in his Palliser series, Can You Forgive Her? proved instantly popular. Based on reworked material from his failed comedy The Noble Jilt, its plot focuses on Victorian discontent with social… Read More ›
You must be logged in to post a comment.