| Description |
1 online resource (xii, 291 pages) |
| Contents |
Introduction: marriage, law, and the novel -- Conjugal bonds: freedom and wedlock in Daniel Defoe -- Nuptial plots: private unions and public pledges in Samuel Richardson -- "Ah! stop! I consent to what you please!": secret matches and coerced unions in Frances Burney -- "'Tis our hearts alone that can bind the vow": love and law from Fenwick to Wollstonecraft -- Epilogue |
| Summary |
"This book examines how eighteenth-century novels engaged the period's dramatic changes in marriage law and helped shift the focus of discussion from the implications of nuptial law on society in general to the implications for women in particular"-- Provided by publisher |
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In eighteenth-century England, the institution of marriage became the subject of heated debates, as clerics, jurists, legislators, philosophers, and social observers began rethinking its contractual foundation. Public Vows argues that these debates shaped English fiction in crucial and previously unrecognised ways and that novels, in turn, played a central role in the debates |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Winner of the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize for an outstanding work of scholarship in eighteenth-century studies |
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Print version record |
| Subject |
English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism
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Marriage in literature.
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Law in literature.
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Marriage law -- England -- History -- 18th century
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Literature and society -- England -- History -- 18th century
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
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Literature and society
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English fiction
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Law in literature
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Marriage in literature
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Marriage law
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England
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books
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Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780813942438 |
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0813942438 |
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