Sensibility and Economics in the Novel The Price of a Tear [Hardcover]

Sensibility and Economics in the Novel argues that the sentimental novel, usually seen as a 'feminine' genre concentrating exclusively on emotional response, is in fact actively involved in contemporary economic and political debates. Spanning the period encompassing the rise, heyday and decline of sentimentalism, the book considers how the trajectory of the movement affected the sentimental novel's use of discourses of economics, sensibility and femininity, and assesses the impact of the pressures of the post-Revolutionary 1790s on these areas.Acknowledgements Introduction Economic Sense and Sensibility in David Simple , Tom Jones and The Countess of Dellwyn Sexual Innocence and Economic Experience: Amelia and Ophelia 'Godlike Benefactors': Patriarchal Patterns in Lady Julia Mandeville , The Vicar of Wakefield and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker 'Above Economy': The History of Lady Barton, The Man of Feeling and A Sentimental Journey 'The First Soft System': Commerce, Sensibility and Femininity in Barham Downs and Anna 'The Mild Lustre of Modest Independence': Economies of Obligation in Novels of the 1790s Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index

'Skinner's substantial book boldly takes on the common assumption that sentimental novels avoid the economic and political. We need not read those concerns into the novels, insists Skinner; they are already there to be read. Many examples are offered, but the most impressive is the reading of A Sentimental Journey. First-rate analyses of later novels pinpoint the particular features of sensibility that come to characterize commerce.' - Clifford Siskin, Studies in English Literature

'Gillian Skinner's Sensibility and Economics in the Novel makes an important and compelling contribution to the new economic criticism that has gained so much interest in our field in the last few years. [...] What distinguishes Skinner most prominently from many other treatments of economics and the novel is her attention lcé