Title: The novel of purpose : literature and social reform in the Anglo-American world /
Authors: Claybaugh, Amanda.
Publisher: Cornell University Press,
Year: 2007
Subjects: English fiction History and criticism; American fiction History and criticism; Social problems in literature.; Social movements in literature.; Literature and society Great Britain History; Literature and society United States History
Abstract: "The Novel of Purpose proposes a new way of understanding social reform in Great Britain and the United States. Amanda Clayburgh offers readings that connect reformist agitation to the formal features of literary works and argues for a method of transatlantic study that attends not only to nations but also to the many groups that collaborate across national boundaries."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: Social reform and the new transatlanticism -- The novel of purpose and Anglo-American realism -- Charles Dickens : a reformer abroad and at home -- Anne Brontë and Elizabeth Stoddard : temperance pledges, marriage vows -- George Eliot and Henry James : exemplary women and typical Americans -- Mark Twain : reformers and other con artists -- Thomas Hardy : new women, old purposes.