The afterlife of character, 1726-1825
By: David A. Brewer.
Series: Material texts
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 259
ISBN-13: 9780812238648
Subjects: English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism.; Characters and characteristics in literature.; Intellectual property -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.; Intellectual property -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Authors and readers -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.; Authors and readers -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) -- History -- 19th century.; Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) -- History -- 18th century.; Sequels (Literature)
Description: "The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825 reconstructs how eighteenth-century British readers invented further adventures for beloved characters, including Gulliver, Falstaff, Pamela, and Tristram Shandy. Far from being close-ended and self-contained, the novels and plays in which these characters first appeared were treated by many as merely a starting point, a collective reference perpetually inviting augmentation through an astonishing wealth of unauthorized sequels. Characters became an inexhaustible form of common property, despite their patent authorship. Readers endowed them with value, knowing all the while that others were doing the same and so were collectively forging a new mode of virtual community."

"In its innovative methodology and its unprecedented attention to the productive interplay between the audience, the book as a material artifact, and the text as an immaterial entity, The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825 offers a new approach to eighteenth-century studies, the history of the book, and the very idea of character itself."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-251) and index.