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Description of  The Provincial Fiction of Mitford, Gaskell and Eliot (Nineteenth-Century and Neo-Victorian Cultures)

Although Elizabeth Gaskell was influenced by Mary Russell Mitford, and George Eliot by Gaskell, only a small number of scholars have considered the affinities and resemblances among all three writers of provincial fiction, and none have done so in depth. Establishing a chain of influence, this book considers Mitford, Gaskell, and Eliots interrelated careers, including the challenges they encountered in achieving distinction within the literary sphere, and the various pressures exerted on them by publishers, reviewers, and editors. It also analyses the career-enhancing possibilities afforded by different modes of publicationincluding periodicals, anthologies, the three-volume novel, and monthly and bimonthly instalmentsas well as their concomitant limitations. In so doing, the book offers a reassessment of Mitfords and Gaskells provincial fiction, which has been frequently derided as a minor literature. It also demonstrates the importance of their work to the development of Eliots liberalism in the age of high realism. Read more