Theology and the Victorian novel / J. Russell Perkin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Perkin, J. Russell (James Russell)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christianity and literature--England--History--19th century.

Christianity and literature.

Christianity in literature.

English fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Theology in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (284 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Beginning with a wide-ranging introduction that explains why a theological reading of Victorian fiction is both rewarding and timely, Perkin also addresses religion's return to prominence in the twenty-first century, confounding earlier predictions of its imminent demise. Chapters on William Thackeray, Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte Yonge, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy are followed by a concluding discussion of Mary Ward and Walter Pater that relates Pater's Marius the Epicurean to postmodern theology and shows how it remains a religious classic for our own time.

Contents:

Introduction : the Victorian book of life

The implied theology of Vanity fair

Charlotte Bronte·'s Shirley as a novel of religious controversy

Gleams from a brighter world : Charlotte Mary Yonge's tractarian poetics

From St. Paul to Pecksniff : Trollope's Bertrams and Arnold's god

Feeling's a sort o'knowlege : George Eliot's religion of humanity

Thomas Hardy's apocryphal gospels

Literature and dogma : Mary August Ward's Robert Elsmere and Walter Pater's Marius the epicurean.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-263) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-86742-3

9786612867422

0-7735-7699-1

OCLC:

759157076