Reading Historical Fiction AlsobyKateMitchell HISTORYANDCULTURALMEMORYINNEO-VICTORIANFICTION VictorianAfterimages AlsobyNicolaParsons READINGGOSSIPINEARLYEIGHTEENTH-CENTURYENGLAND BothpublishedbyPalgraveMacmillan Reading Historical Fiction The Revenant and Remembered Past Editedby Kate Mitchell AustralianNationalUniversity and Nicola Parsons UniversityofSydney Introduction, selection and editorial matter © Kate Mitchell and Nicola Parsons2013 Individualchapters©contributors2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-0-230-34313-9 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorshaveassertedtheirrightstobeidentifiedastheauthorsofthis workinaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2013by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-34453-6 ISBN 978-1-137-29154-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137291547 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 Contents ListofIllustrations vii Acknowledgements viii NotesonContributors ix 1 ReadingtheRepresentedPast:HistoryandFictionfrom 1700tothePresent 1 KateMitchellandNicolaParsons 2 LearningtoReadthePastintheEarlyHistoricalNovel 19 AnneH.Stevens 3 TemporalSystemsinRepresentationsofthePast:Distance, FreedomandIronyinHistoricalFiction 33 HamishDalley 4 ‘AllHistoriesAreAgainstYou?’:FamilyHistory,Domestic HistoryandtheFemininePastinNorthangerAbbeyand Persuasion 50 MarySpongberg 5 RereadingHogarthandPope:AuthenticityandAcademic FictionsoftheEighteenthCentury 67 JamesWard 6 PanoramicByron:Reading,HistoryandPre-cinematic Spectacle 85 HelenGroth 7 ‘ThePaintedRecord’inGeorgeEliot’sHistoricalNovel Romola 101 KaraMarler-Kennedy 8 ReadingandRememberingHistoryinDanielDefoe’s AJournalofthePlagueYear 119 NicolaParsons 9 TheGothicReader:History,FearandTrembling 136 DianaWallace v vi Contents 10 NotesTowardsaPoethicsofSpectrality:TheExamples ofNeo-VictorianTextuality 153 JulianWolfreys 11 DickensandWaysofSeeingtheFrenchRevolution:ATale ofTwoCities 172 JonMee 12 TheUsesofHistory:TheHistoricalNovelinthe Post-FrenchRevolutionDebateandEllisCorneliaKnight’s MarcusFlaminius(1792) 187 FionaPrice 13 TheLivingPastandtheFellowshipofSacrificialViolence inWilliamMorris’sADreamofJohnBall 204 IngridHanson Bibliography 220 Index 240 Illustrations Jacket:GottfriedEichler,theYounger,Meditatio(1758–1760),reproduced bypermissionoftheGettyResearchInstitute,LosAngeles(93-B7426) 8.1 JohnBell,London’sRemembrancer(London,1665),t.p., reproducedbypermissionoftheHuntingtonLibrary,San Marino,California 126 8.2 JohnGraunt,London’sDreadfulVisitation(London,1665), t.p.,reproducedbypermissionoftheClarkLibrary,UCLA 127 vii Acknowledgements This collection would not have been possible without the support and assistance of a number of individuals and institutions. We are espe- cially gratefultothe Schoolof Letters,Art and Media at the University of Sydney for funding that supported the initial stages of this project. We’d both like to thank our colleagues at the Australian National Uni- versityandtheUniversityofSydneyrespectivelyfortheirinterestinand engagementwiththiscollection. We have been fortunate in our two anonymous press readers, and the readers of each individual essay, whose suggestions facilitated the developmentofthisproject.WewouldalsoliketothankPaulaKennedy andBenDoyleatPalgravefortheireditorialadviceandwarmsupport. InSydney,specialthanksalsogotoAmandaCrawford. OurthankstoStephenTaborattheHuntingtonLibrary,ScottJacobs attheClarkLibraryandKateRalstonattheGettyResearchInstitutewho kindlyfacilitatedthebusinessofobtainingillustrations. Finally, we would like to thank each of our contributors for making thisprojectagenuineconversation. viii Contributors Hamish DalleyisaPhDstudentattheResearchSchoolofHumanities and the Arts, Australian National University. His doctoral research focusesonthepostcolonialhistoricalnovel,withanemphasisonwrit- ing from Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand. Related interests include literary realism, the relation between history and fiction, nationalism, and utopian imaginaries. In 2012 his study of writing by New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera, ‘“The Continuum of the World Corrected”: Allegorical Form and (Trans)National Communities in the Historical Fiction of Witi Ihimaera’, was published by Clio: A Journal of History, LiteratureandthePhilosophyofHistory. HelenGrothisAssociateProfessorandARCFutureFellowintheSchool of the Arts and Media at the University of New South Wales. She is the author of Victorian Photography and Literary Nostalgia (2003), Mov- ing Images: Nineteenth Century Reading and Screen Practices (2013), and, withNatalyaLusty,DreamsandModernity:ACulturalHistory(2013).She has also recently co-edited a special issue of Textual Practice with Paul Sheehan,‘TheUsesofAnachronism’. Ingrid Hanson gained her PhD in 2011 at the University of Sheffield, where she now teaches part-time. She is currently completing her first monograph,whicharisesfromherthesisonWilliamMorrisandconsid- erstherelationshipoftheideaofviolenceinMorris’swritingstoother literary and cultural constructions of violence and war. Previous publi- cations include articles on aspects of Morris’s work in Review of English StudiesandEnglish.Herresearchinterestsextendacrosstheliteratureof politicalviolence,warandpeaceinthelongnineteenthcentury.Sheis currently researching a new project on the body and the idea of peace in Victorian and Edwardian literature and culture, from Quaker tracts andstoriesforchildrentotheanti-BoerWarwritingsofW.T.Steadand OliveSchreiner. Kara Marler-Kennedy gained her PhD in 2010 in the English Depart- ment at Rice University, Houston, Texas. Her dissertation, entitled ix