Serious play
Subtitle: the cultural form of the nineteenth-century realist novel
By: J. Jeffrey Franklin.
Series: New cultural studies
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 250
Subjects: English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Realism in literature.; Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Literary form -- History -- 19th century.; Performing arts in literature.; Gambling in literature.; Play in literature.
Description: Queen Victoria was famously not amused, and the age to which she gave her name is not generally known for its playfulness or sense of fun. But play was pervasive in Victorian society and in the realist novels that were central to that culture. In Serious Play, J.

Jeffrey Franklin examines the role of play in three areas - gambling, theatricality, and aesthetic theory - demonstrating in the process how the realist novel served as a vehicle for play while play in turn entered and helped define the form of realism.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-242) and index.