Speculation and Social Progress: Financial and Narrative Bubbles in Charles Lever’s Davenport Dunn
Journal: Estudios Irlandeses
Year: 2019

Introduction In mid-nineteenth-century novels, financial speculation tends to be narrated through a recurrent set of motifs: grand speculative schemes are never successful, fraud always lurks in the background, speculators eventually commit suicide or just die, and their hybris is systematically expunged from the story world. Moreover, satire and sarcasm are often recruited to reinforce the