The historical novel in nineteenth-century europe: representations of reality in history and fiction

Brian Hamnett examines key historical novels by Scott, Balzac, Manzoni, Dickens, Eliot, Flaubert, Fontane, Galds, and Tolstoy, revealing the contradictions inherent in this form of fiction and exploring the challenges writers encountered in attempting to represent a reality that linked past and present. Even at the height of its popularity in the early nineteenth century the historicalnovel faced criticism at many levels. After its predominance in the 1810s and1820s writers and historians shunned it as a travesty of their respective disciplines. Even so, the historical novel has frequently attracted a wide-ranging public right up to the present day. Brian Hamnett examines key novels, by authors including Scott, Balzac, Manzoni, Dickens, Eliot, Flaubert, Fontane, Galds,and Tolstoy, revealing the contradictions inherent in this form of fiction and exposing the challenges writers faced in attempting to represent a reality that linked past and present. He argues that the historical novel in the nineteenth century was a common European phenomenon with considerableinterconnection of themes and periods. Accordingly, the book ranges from the British Isles and France through the Germanic territories, Italy and Spain, tothe Russian Empire, identifying the different objectives and phases of the historical novel. Although historical novels did appear in the two previous centuries, the form came to maturity in the nineteenth century, a consequence of the developing nature of history as a discipline distinct from literature and philosophy, and the increasingprimacy of the novel for writers and the reading public. Yet, the frontiers between history and literature remained blurred, and the two disciplines continued to influence one another as each sought a faithful representation of humanexperience. INDICE: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION PART ONE THE HISTORICAL NOVEL AS GENRE AND PROBLEM: AN ANALYTICAL AND CRITICAL EXAMINATION An Exploration of the Categories: History, Narrative, the Novel and Romance History and Fiction: The Trials of Separation and Reunion The German Sturm undDrang, Historical Drama, and Early Romantic Fiction Scottish Flowering: Turbulence or Enlightenment Romanticism and the Historical Novel The Historians' Response to the Historical Novel History and Invention in the Italian Question PART TWO INTERNAL CONTRADICTIONS AND UNSTABLE FORM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL'S DILEMMA The Historical Novel at mid-Century Crisis? Is there a Way out? Two Experiments in Myth and History Galds and the Novel of Spanish National Identity The Struggle for Identity and Purpose in the Russian Historical Novel: From Pushkin to Tolstoy The German Historical Novel Modernism and Beyond FICTITIOUS HISTORIES SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

• ISBN: 978-0-19-969504-1
• Editorial: Oxford University
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 352
• Fecha Publicación: 24/11/2011
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés