The English Jacobin novel on rights, property, and the law
Subtitle: critiquing the contract
By: Nancy E. Johnson.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 215
Subjects: English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism.; Law and literature -- History -- 18th century.; Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.; English fiction -- French influences.; Social contract in literature.; Human rights in literature.; Jacobins -- Great Britain.; Property in literature.; Law in literature.
Description: "The English Jacobin Novel on Rights, Property and the Law is a study of the radical novel's critique of the evolving social contract in the 1790s. Focusing on selected novels by Thomas Holcroft, Charlotte Smith, Elizabeth Inchbald, Robert Bage, William Godwin, Mary Hays, Mary Wollstonecraft and Maria Edgeworth, this book examines narrative investigations into the intricate relationships between theories of rights, the requirements of proprietorship in civil society, and the construction of the legal subject.

The novel's inquiries into political transformations at the end of the eighteenth century reveal that the exclusion of certain segments of the population from political participation - based on financial dependence - persisted into notions of the social contract.

English Jacobin fiction tells the tale of how the novel, in one critical moment of history, located and gave meaning to a theory of rights that became a foundation of modern democracy."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-210) and index.