Gothic Manners and the Classic English Novel

Just what is it that relates Austen and Trollope, Bront and Dickens to Eliot, James, Hardy, and Ford? How do novels like Pride and Prejudiceand Barchester Towersand novels like Wuthering Heightsand Great Expectationsbecome part of Middlemarch, T he Portrait of a Lady, Jude the Obscure, and Parade's End? For Joseph Wiesenfarth, the relationships and connections are bound up in what he calls Gothic Manners. His overarching argument is that the salient elements of two genres, that of the novel of manners and the new Gothic novel, come together and form a synthesis which accounts, in good part, for the greatness of “classical” English fictions. Building upon Bakhtinian premises, and combining scrupulous readings of the texts, Wiesenfarth gives us a balanced blend of theory, history, and interpretation to generate what will be cited as an important new tradition of the novel.Wiesenfarth, Joseph is the author of 'Gothic Manners and the Classic English Novel' with ISBN 9780299119041 and ISBN 0299119041.