The professional ideal and the Victorian novel
Subtitle: the works of Disraeli, Trollope, Gaskell, and Eliot
By: Susan E. Colón
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Basingstoke
Language: eng
Number of pages: 234
ISBN-13: 9781403976130
Subjects: Idealism in literature; Professions in literature; English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism
Description: "This book makes the claim that Victorian novels do not simply reflect professional ideology; they also scrutinize its dilemmas, contradictions, and limitations. In this volume, innovative readings of canonical texts like Sybil, Barchester Towers, Romola, and Daniel Deronda accompany work on less familiar texts like Tancred and My Lady Ludlow to illuminate the Victorians' own engagement with fundamental ideas of professional identity - such as autonomy, meritocracy, and the service ethic - reveal professionalism's dual basis in materialist and idealist rationalities."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [179]-225) and index