1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910814094003321

Autore

Brown Erica <1975-, >

Titolo

Comedy and the feminine middlebrow novel : Elizabeth von Arnim and Elizabeth Taylor / / by Erica Brown

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2016

ISBN

1-317-32073-5

1-315-65499-7

1-317-32074-3

1-84893-339-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 164 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Literary texts and the popular marketplace ; ; 3

Disciplina

823.912099287

Soggetti

Women in literature

Middle class in literature

Humor in literature

Humorous stories, English - History and criticism

English fiction - Women authors - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"First published 2013 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Ltd."--t.p. verso.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

The middlebrow and comedy: Elizabeth Taylor and Elizabeth von Arnim's cultural and literary context -- A comedic 'response' to war? Elizabeth von Arnim's Christopher and Columbus (1919) and Mr. Skeffington (1940) -- 'One begins to see what is meant by "They lived happily ever after"': Elizabeth von Arnim's Vera (1921) and Elizabeth Taylor's Palladian (1946) -- 'One shudders to think what a less sophisticated artist would have made of it': the comedy of age in Elizabeth von Arnim's Love (1925) and Elizabeth TAylor's In a summer season (1961).

Sommario/riassunto

Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941) and Elizabeth Taylor (1912-75) wrote witty and entertaining novels about the domestic lives of middle-class women. Widely read and enjoyed, their work was often dismissed as middlebrow. Brown argues that their skilful use of comedy and irony worked as devices to provide the receptive reader with a subversive commentary on the cruelties and disappointments of life. She traces



the critical reception of their novels from the publication of von Arnim's <i>Christopher and Columbus</i> (1919) to Taylor's <i>In a Summer Season</i> (1961). In doing so, she demonstrates that hostility to the 'feminine middlebrow', often supposed to be at its height between the wars, in fact intensified after World War II.<br>  <br>  <b>Shortlisted for the ESSE Book Awards, 2014 - Literatures in the English Language (Junior Scholars)</b><br>