Dissembling fictions
Subtitle: Elizabeth Gaskell and the Victorian social text
By: Deirdre D'Albertis.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 230
Subjects: Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865 -- Political and social views.; Literature and society -- England -- History -- 19th century.; Women and literature -- England -- History -- 19th century.; Narration (Rhetoric) -- History -- 19th century.; Truthfulness and falsehood in literature.; Social problems in literature.; Deception in literature.; Women in literature.
Description: In Dissembling Fictions, Deirdre d'Albertis uncovers the tactics of disguise that Gaskell skillfully employed in order to evade prescribed notions of what a Victorian woman novelist should write, unveils the complex patternings of gender and genre in Gaskell's works, and examines her use of dissembling as a narrative practice.

A writer on the periphery in both traditional and feminist literary histories, now gradually being reclaimed by the canon, Gaskell is revealed as someone who consistently returned to narratives that offered readers as much as they withheld, creating stories that suggest rather than state and that ultimately challenge us to rethink presumed gender identifications of Victorian women novelists.

An illuminative study that also proposes that feminist readers take a fresh look at the very idea of a separate tradition for women's writing in light of Gaskell's example, Dissembling Fictions is a thorough and appealing analysis of an underappreciated writer whose influence is still felt today.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-227) and index.