1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996218386303316

Autore

Pedlar Valerie

Titolo

The most dreadful visitation : male madness in Victorian fiction / / Valerie Pedlar [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Liverpool, : Liverpool University Press, 2006

Liverpool : , : Liverpool University Press, , 2006

ISBN

1-78138-773-7

1-84631-418-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (182 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Liverpool English texts and studies ; ; 46

Disciplina

823.8093561

Soggetti

English fiction - 19th century - History and criticism

Mental illness in literature

Men in literature

Men - Mental health

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 11 Aug 2017).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Insurrection and imagination : idiocy and Barnaby Rudge -- Thwarted lovers : Basil and Maud -- Wrongful confinement, sensationalism and Hard cash -- Madness and marriage -- The zoophagus maniac : madness and degeneracy in Dracula.

Sommario/riassunto

A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via the OAPEN Library platform (www. oapen. org).Victorian literature is rife with scenes of madness, with mental disorder functioning as everything from a simple plot device to a commentary on the foundations of Victorian society. But while madness in Victorian fiction has been much studied, most scholarship has focused on the portrayal of madness in women; male mental disorder in the period has suffered comparative neglect. Valerie Pedlar corrects this imbalance in The 'Most Dreadful Visitation.' This extraordinary study explores a wide range of Victorian writings to consider the relationship between the portrayal of mental illness in literary works and the portrayal of similar disorders in the writings of doctors and psychologists. Pedlar presents in-depth studies of Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, Tennyson's Maud, Wilkie Collins's Basil, and Trollope's He Knew He Was Right, considering each work in the



context of Victorian understandings-and fears-of mental degeneracy.