Description |
vii, 277 pages : illustrations, music ; 25 cm |
Contents |
Introduction: Toward a History of Victorian Novel Theory -- I. Theories of Reading: A Critical Prehistory -- 1. Mass Reading and Physiological Novel Theory -- II. Practices of Reading: Four Cases -- 2. Distraction's Negative Liberty: Thackeray and Attention (Intermittent Form) -- 3. Melodies for the Forgetful: Eliot, Wagner, and Duration (Elongated Form) -- 4. Just Noticeable Differences: Meredith and Fragmentation (Discontinuous Form) -- 5. The Eye as Motor: Gissing and Speed-Reading (Accelerated Form) -- Coda: I. A. Richards and the End of Physiological Novel Theory |
Summary |
"Rich in unexpected intersections, from the British response to Wagnerian opera to the birth of speed-reading in the late nineteenth century, The Physiology of the Novel challenges our assumptions about what novel-reading once did, and still does, to the individual reader, and provides new answers to the question of how novels influenced a culture's way of reading, responding, and feeling."--BOOK JACKET |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [256]-272) and index |
Subject |
English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.
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English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.
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Books and reading -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.
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Reader-response criticism -- Great Britain.
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Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.
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LC no. |
2007015702 |
ISBN |
9780199208968 alkaline paper |
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0199208964 alkaline paper |
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