This course studies the development of the British novel through the Victorian period (1837-1901) with attention to the craft of the works as well as their relation to social and literary context. The class will be taught by a combination of lecture (asterisks below) and discussion. Your participation in the course requires engaged class attendance, on-time submission of a series of Cr/NE prep papers (mostly assigned two classes in advance once a week or so throughout the semester), two 8-9 page papers, and an in-class final exam.

TEXTS:

George Eliot, Middlemarch (Penguin)
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (Oxford)
Charles Dickens, Hard Times (Penguin)
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (Norton)
George Gissing, The Odd Women (Norton)
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (Penguin)
Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Washington Sq)
ON RESERVE: Sally Mitchell, Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia

SCHEDULE : (NB: Proportion your reading to the number of classes per text. Also, see reverse for suggested Encyclopedia entries for each text.)

1) GRADED PAPERS: The mid-term paper should deal with any one of the three novels read before Break, the final paper with any one of the four novels read after Break. The content of the paper SHOULD NOT HEAVILY OVERLAP what we've covered in class lecture or discussion. (You're responsible for knowing what class coverage consists in.) You're welcome to confer with me to shape up a topic. I'll also give some suggestions in class. The incorporation of extratextual reading (whether critical or historical) is optional, though I'd especially encourage junior and senior majors to give it a try. Late midterm papers will be downgraded half a grade per day. No extensions possible on the final paper without a PC (Procedurally Correct) Incomplete.

2) VICTORIAN BRITAN: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA: Below is a list of recommended entry titles from this reference work. The book is currently available in reference (DA 550.V53). I hope soon to be able to put a second copy on Reserve. These entries stand to inform your reading of the novels and may also give you some ideas about focal points for papers.

Aristocracy and Gentry
Church of England
Class
Education (various entries)
Evangelicalism
Empire and Imperialism
Family
Feminism
Homosexuality
Horses and Carriages
Housework and Domestic Technology
Money
Novel
Periodicals (various entries)
Philanthropy
Romanticism
Serial Literature
Sex Education
Society, Etiquette and Customs of Womanhood

b) Specific to each novel (besides biographical entries on authors):

--Middlemarch: Church of England Parish Life; Classical Scholarship; Clothing & Fashion; Death & Funerals; Education, Women's; Evangelical Movement; Family; Hospitals; Medical (various entries); Music & Morals; Natural History; Needlecrafts; Positivism; Romanticism; Womanhood

--Wuth. Hts: Dialect Writing; Fairy Lore; Romanticism; Supernatural Fiction

--Hard Times: Amusements & Recreation, Working Class; Childhood; Circus; Cities; Divorce; Education, Elementary; Environmental Pollution; Romanticism; Statistics; Trade Unions; Utilitarianism; Womanhood

--Van. Fair: Amusements & Recreation, Middle Class; Aristocracy & Gentry; Clothing & Fashion; Clubs, Gentlemen's; Death & Funerals; Family; Gentleman; Illustration; Missionaries; Popular Shows & Exhibitions; Silver Fork Novel; Society, Etiquette & Customs of; Travel & Tourism; Womanhood

--The Odd Women: Naturalism; New Woman; Shopworkers; Single Women; Women's Employment; Women's Friendships

--Jude the Obscure: Aesthetic Movement; Antiquarianism; Naturalism; New Woman; Photography; Swinburne

--Jekyll & Hyde: Gothic Fiction; Insanity; Science Fiction