Talk:Sentimental novel

message: Just a note on the change of sentimental novel to sentiment in Augustan literature: I understand the change, as a red link is annoying, but we (those few folks doing 18th century literature) keep waiting for one of us to break down and attempt an article on the sentimental novel.  I know that I'm something like the last person on earth who could do a fair job on it, because I'm a satire fan, and the sentimental novel was one of the drippiest, most insipid things on earth, from my point of view.  Bishonen knows the material better, but she likes it not much better than I do.  I hope the red link, spread out now across 12 articles or so, will spur someone with training in feminist theory and the novel will jump in.  (Generally, the feminist literary historians praise the sentimental novel to some degree, or find it interesting, while unreconstructed old historians and Marxist literary people like me think of it as a sign of mass psychosis.)  I'm not going to change the link back, as I really have no objection to the change, but I thought I'd explain why that red link is so prevalent in articles I've been the primary author on (and a little bottle of oil (put in so the sentence doesn't end on a preposition)).  Geogre 13:58, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Where did you get the idea that Pamela is no sentimental novel? Britannica, also Blamires, Sanders and Seeber (all works literary history) regard Pamela as prototype of the sent.nov., the tragedy is irrelevant; it is a "beclouded or unrealistic view of its subject with emphasis on the readers' capacity for tenderness" (Britannica). Though your view on Fielding agrees with these works.--FlammingoParliament 14:55, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sentiment and the Sentimental 

message: Should the above novel not be referred to in this article? Dominictimms 12:58, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd think that is a satire on sentimentalism: sentimental novel was en vogue in mid-18th century, o cool, found a source.... adding it. --FlammingoHey 14:21, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Sense and Sensibility]]

message: This page needs more references! Although the information seems generally accurate, I would really like to see some good sources for some of the assertions, especially things like young people committing suicide after reading Werther, or Evelina being the first romantic comedy.
Tavn8r 20:09, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  references, please 

message: The opening of the article stresses the importance of distinguishing between the two, then fails to distinguish them. mcoverdale (talk) 18:37, 30 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sentimentalism v. sensibility 

message: I'm surprised to find no discussion of Charles Dickens here. I have not studied this topic but it does seem to me that some kind of relationship exists between this 18th century tradition and novels like Dombey and Son and The Old Curiosity Shop, to name just two; or is Dickens' sentimentality just a Victorian quirk? I note that Britannica online does not believe that there is a connection, but my instinct is that they are wrong, especially as there has been a recent book on this topic: Dickens and the Sentimental Tradition: Fielding, Richardson, Sterne, Goldsmith, Sheridan, Lamb, by Valerie Purton. Rwood128 (talk) 16:00, 10 January 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Charles Dickens 

message: Here's what we have now: 
Sentimental novels relied on emotional response, both from their readers and characters. They feature scenes of distress and tenderness, and the plot is arranged to advance both emotions and actions. The result is a valorization of "fine feeling," displaying the characters as a model for refined, sensitive emotional effect. The ability to display feelings was thought to show character and experience, and to shape social life and relations.
I'm trying to think of a novel that doesn't rely on "emotional response, both from their readers and characters".  Even in the most antiseptic science fiction, the device is generally used as a contrasting device to incite rage.  Is this trying to say "raw, emotional outpourings"?  That would at least exclude Westerns (until the final show down).  
I'm guessing "fine feeling" is more Picard than Kirk, more Niles Crane than Frasier Crane (am I even getting warm here?), more Colonel Kurtz than Don Lope de Aguirre. 
No, this is not working as a definition. — MaxEnt 02:48, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Not adequately defined