Novels, Readers, and Reviewers: Responses to Fiction in Antebellum America
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- Synopsis
- This book describes and characterizes responses of American readers to fiction in the generation before the Civil War. It is based on close examination of the reviews of all novels—both American and European—that appeared in major American periodicals during the years 1840–1860, a period in which magazines, novels, and novel reviews all proliferated. Nina Baym makes uses of the reviews to gain information about the formal, aesthetic, and moral expectations of reviewers. Her major conclusion is that the accepted view about the American novel before the Civil War—the view that the atmosphere in America was hostile to fiction—is a myth. There is compelling evidence, she shows, for the existence of a veritable novel industry and, concomitantly, a vast audience for fiction in the 1840s and 1850s.
- Copyright:
- 1987
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Book Size:
- 288 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9781501726194
- Related ISBNs:
- 9781501726187, 9780801494666, 9781501727764, 9780801417092
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- Date of Addition:
- 06/15/21
- Copyrighted By:
- Cornell University
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- History, Nonfiction, Literature and Fiction, Language Arts
- Reading Age:
- 18 and up
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.
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- by Nina Baym
- in History
- in Nonfiction
- in Literature and Fiction
- in Language Arts