The Afterlives of Eighteenth-Century Fiction

Daniel Cook editor Nicholas Seager editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:29th Sep '15

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The Afterlives of Eighteenth-Century Fiction cover

This book explores the adaptation and appropriation of a range of canonical and lesser-known British and Irish novels of the eighteenth century.

This collection of essays offers insights into the ways in which eighteenth-century novels have been adapted and appropriated by later writers. It will be of interest to students of the rise of the novel, interdisciplinary approaches to literature, and the developing field of adaptation studies.The Afterlives of Eighteenth-Century Fiction probes the adaptation and appropriation of a wide range of canonical and lesser-known British and Irish novels in the long eighteenth century, from the period of Daniel Defoe and Eliza Haywood through to that of Jane Austen and Walter Scott. Major authors, including Jonathan Swift, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Laurence Sterne, are discussed alongside writers such as Sarah Fielding and Ann Radcliffe, whose literary significance is now increasingly being recognised. By uncovering this neglected aspect of the reception of eighteenth-century fiction, this collection contributes to developing our understanding of the form of the early novel, its place in a broader culture of entertainment then and now, and its interactions with a host of other genres and media, including theatre, opera, poetry, print caricatures and film.

'The essays, which are substantially footnoted and usefully cross-referenced, are of a consistently high standard. Cook, Seager and their contributors are to be commended for helping to shape the field as well as extending it through this significant new body of research.' Shaun Regan, The Review of English Studies
'… The Afterlives of Eighteenth-Century Fiction succeeds precisely because 'afterlife' is a term practical and versatile enough to unite a range of learned and engaging case studies. Whether or not 'afterlife' supplants related words such as 'adaptation', 'reception', 'intertextuality', or plain old 'literary history', this volume stands as a valuable reminder of the cultural fecundity of eighteenth-century fiction and of the fascinating range of things that can happen to texts.' Jacob Sider Jost, Eighteenth-Century Fiction
'By showing how a multiplicity of genres proliferated and intermingled with one another, The Afterlives of Eighteenth-Century Fiction interrogates the rise-of-the-novel tradition and challenges considerations of the eighteenth century as a time preoccupied with definitions of originality. This wide-ranging collection will be useful for beginning and established scholars of the long eighteenth century. Moreover, the case studies contained within its pages, touching on nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first century remixes of eighteenth-century texts, demonstrate that the expansive eighteenth-century canon is adapted continually in works of literature and on stage and screen.' Jill Kirsten Anderson, Papers on Language and Literature
'… a timely, accessible and engaging study of adaptations, remediations, reappropriations and other reinterpretations of eighteenth-century novels. As a result, it is of interest to scholars in literary and adaptation studies alike.' Ana Daniela Coelho, English Studies

ISBN: 9781107054684

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 19mm

Weight: 590g

316 pages