The Orphan in Eighteenth-Century Law and Literature: Estate, Blood, and Body

ISBN-13: 9781138261846 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 302 str.

Cheryl L. Nixon

Opis

Examining novels by authors such as Haywood, Smollett, and Inchbald, and uncovering new manuscript and print case records, Cheryl Nixon compares tales of fictional orphans to narratives of legal orphans. Focusing on the eighteenth-century construction of the "valued" orphan, her book shows this figure's centrality to the development of new novelistic subgenres, new ideologies of the individual, and new understandings of property, family, and gender.

Recenzje

'Combining original research with thorough and highly nuanced analysis, this is the first full-length scholarly study specifically to address not only fictional representations of the orphan in the eighteenth-century novel, but the lived experiences of individuals who came to be recognised legally, institutionally and culturally as ’orphaned’ in this period. This illuminating interdisciplinary study will be of considerable value to students and scholars of eighteenth-century literature, social history and law.' Sue Chaplin, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK ’Nixon’s study is a valuable addition to recent work on the family in eighteenth-century Britain. It is interdisciplinary in scope, known novels as well as the cases of real-life orphans. Its thesis is well argued and well supported...’ New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century 'Berenguier has written an informative and readable book which makes a useful contribution to our growing knowledge of the ’woman question’ in the eighteenth century.' Journal of Childhood in the Past '... Nixon offers an important contribution in her consideration of those who remain central to the socio-economic axis despite their orphan status. Nixon’s work significantly enhances our understanding of eighteenth[-Century] culture and society adding a valuable dimension to the study of the orphan figure.' Children’s Books History Society Newsletter

Spis treści

Contents: Introduction: the valued orphan: law and literature; Part 1 Estate: The poor orphan: factual/fictional institutions and statutory law; The propertied orphan: public/private papers and Parliamentary Acts. Part 2 Blood: The male orphan plot: fictionalizing the family in Annesley v. Anglesey; The female orphan plot: rewriting and rereading the family in Palmer v. Palmer. Part 3 Body: The confined orphan: ravishing guardians and the heiress' marriage plot; The mobile orphan: charitable bodies and the gentleman's picaresque; Conclusion: the valued individual: estate, blood, and body; Bibliography; Index.

O autorze

Cheryl Nixon is Associate Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her publications on eighteenth-century literature, law, and the family include Novel Definitions: An Anthology of Commentary on the Novel, 1688-1815.