The Romance of Gambling in the Eighteenth-Century British Novel [Hardcover]

Gambling permeated the daily lives of eighteenth-century Britons of all classes. This book explicates the relationship between the rampant gambling in eighteenth-century England, the new forms of gambling-inspired capitalism that transformed British society, and novels that interrogate the new socio-economy of long odds and lucky breaks.List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: The Gambling Culture of Eighteenth-Century Britain 'Putting to Hazard a Certainty': Lotteries and the Romance of Gambling in Eighteenth-Century England (Sir Charles Grandison, The Excursion) Cheating, Calculation, and the Episodic Romance of Gambling (Hoyle's Short Treatise , Ferdinand Count Fathom, Amelia ) The Gambling Man of Feeling: Sublime and Sentimental Gambling ( Cecilia, The Adventures of David Simple, The Mysteries of Udolpho ) The Lady's Last Stake: Camilla and the Female Gambler Children's Games 'Abroad and at Home': Belinda, Education, and Empire The Confidence Man: Persuasion and the Romance of Risk Afterword: The Eighteenth-Century Risk Society Works Cited Index

'Richard has constructed a conceptually sophisticated intertwining of historical analysis of the eighteenth-century culture of gambling with a series of effective readings of novels and visual images. This is a fine book on the culture of eighteenth century gambling that speaks eloquently to the stakes of our present time.' - Ross Hamilton, Associate Professor of English, Columbia University, USA

'...an immensely engaging argument that explores gambling through an impressive breadth of topics; this work would be of interest to anyone looking at the rise of the novel especially as tied to culture, finance, and the economy.' - Kate Scarth, University of Warwick, BARS Bulletin & Review

JESSICA RICHARD is Associate Professor of English at Wake Forest University, USA. She has published articles on Rasselas, Belinda, and Frankenstein. She is the editor of Thlc/