info@woodslane.com.au
Contact us on (02) 8445 2300
For all customer service and order enquiries

WOODSLANE

Popular Subjects

Woodslane Online Catalogues

9781421408422 Add to Cart Academic Inspection Copy

Elizabeth Singer Rowe and the Development of the English Novel

Description
Table of
Contents
Reviews
Google
Preview
Elizabeth Singer Rowe and the Development of the English Novel is the first in-depth study of Rowes prose fiction. A four-volume collection of her work was a bestseller for a hundred years after its publication, but today Rowe is a largely unrecognized figure in the history of the novel. Although her poetry was appreciated by poets such as Alexander Pope for its metrical craftsmanship, beauty, and imagery, by the time of her death in 1737 she was better known for her fiction. According to Paula R. Backscheider, Rowe's major focus in her novels was on creating characters who were seeking a harmonious, contented life, often in the face of considerable social pressure. This quest would become the plotline in a large number of works in the second half of the eighteenth century, and it continues to be a major theme today in novels by women.Backscheider relates Rowes work to popular fiction written by earlier writers as well as by her contemporaries. Rowe had a lasting influence on major movements, including the politeness (or gentility) movement, the reading revolution, and the Bluestocking society. The author reveals new information about each of these movements, and Elizabeth Singer Rowe emerges as an important innovator. Her influence resulted in new types of novel writing, philosophies, and lifestyles for women. Backscheider looks to archival materials, literary analysis, biographical evidence, and a configuration of cultural and feminist theories to prove her groundbreaking argument.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Locating Elizabeth Singer Rowe
1. Positioning Rowe's Fiction
2. Isles of Happiness
3. Toward Novelistic Discourse
4. The Beautiful Life
Conclusion: Lifestyle as Legacy
Notes
Bibliography
Index

""Paula R. Backsheider's latest book seeks to establish, with impressive detail and energy, the centrality of the fiction of Elizabeth Singer Rowe to the development of the English novel.""

Google Preview content