Title Dickens, novel reading, and the Victorian popular theatre / Deborah Vlock

Published Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998

Copies

Location	Call no.	Vol.	Availability
MELB	820.8 D5486 Z/Vld		AVAILABLE

Description xii, 226 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm Series Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 19 Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 19 Contents 1. Introduction -- 2. Dickens and the "imaginary text" -- 3. Theatrical attitudes: performance and the English imagination -- 4. Patter and the politics of standard speech in Victorian England -- 5. Charles Mathews, Charles Dickens, and the comic female voice -- 6. Patter and the problem of redundancy: odd women and Little Dorrit -- 7. Conclusion Summary "Dickens' novels, like those of his contemporaries, are more explicitly indebted to the theatre than scholars have supposed: his stories and characters were often already public property by the time they were published, circulating as part of a current theatrical repertoire well known to many Victorian readers. In this study, Deborah Vlock argues that novels - and novel readers - were in effect created by the popular theatre in the nineteenth century, and that the possibility of reading and writing narrative was conditioned by the culture of the stage."--BOOK JACKET Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-222) and index Subject Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Appreciation -- Great Britain. Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Knowledge -- Performing arts Authors and readers -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century. Books and reading -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century. Fiction -- Appreciation -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century. Fiction -- Appreciation. Performing arts in literature. Popular culture -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century. Theater and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century. Theater -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century. SUBJECT Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056952 LC no. 98021087 ISBN 0521640849 (hardback)

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