The Presence of the Present: Topics of the Day in the Victorian Novel - Hardcover

Richard D. Altick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814205186 ISBN 13: 9780814205181

Publisher: Ohio State University Press, 1991

Synopsis

Describes how nineteenth-century English novelists used details of everyday life and the common knowledge of their day in their works

About this title

About the Author:

Altick is Regent's Professor of English at The Ohio State University.

From Library Journal:

This vast, rich, and witty book concerns British novels written during the mid-19th century. With unfailing verve, Atlick discusses "topicalities," by which he means "references to people, events, or places that were present in the public consciousness" when the novels, great or otherwise, were published. Atlick also covers the details of everyday Victorian life--among them, attitudes toward smoking, popular consumer goods, the connotations of hair color, transportation, the scourge of bankruptcy, and the acceptance of slang. He illuminates references the novels' first readers easily understood but which most today find puzzling. Any reader of Victorian novels will find this book invaluable--either when read cover to cover or piecemeal. Recommended for academic and larger public collections.
- John Miller, Normandale Community Coll., Bloomington, Minn.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ohio State University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0814205186
• ISBN 13: 9780814205181
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 854