Philip Davis

Gebundenes Buch

Why Victorian Literature Still Matters

Beschreibung

Why Victorian Literature Still Matters is a passionate defense of the enduring impact of Victorian realism today. With a nod to the popularity of phrenology within that era, noted literary scholar Philip Davis points to a corner of the human mind where all Victorian literature resides. This "Victorian bump," he argues, is an area concerned with human purpose, morality, secularization and belief, human stories, and living in time. Rather than emphasizing Victorian literature as an historical and reassuring body of knowledge, Davis explains its centrality for contemporary readers as an important mode of thinking and feeling, and provides a gateway of analysis into the popular prose and poetry of the Victorian Age. Why Victorian Literature Still Matters is a positive manifesto, inviting readers to discover what they really like about a book. The author offers an insightful window for readers to formulate a sense of what Victorian literature means for them and how it relates to our wider human existence.

Autor

Philip Davis is Professor of English Literature in the School of English, University of Liverpool, UK. He is the author of The Victorians and, most recently, Bernard Malamud: A Writer's Life. His other books include The Experience of Reading; Real Voices: On Reading, and Memory and Writing: from Wordsworth to Lawrence, as well as works on Shakespeare and Samuel Johnson. He is also editor of The Reader, a non-academic literary magazine aimed at the serious reader.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley
• Seitenzahl: 184
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. September 2008
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 240mm x 161mm x 15mm
• Gewicht: 448g
• ISBN-13: 9781405135788
• ISBN-10: 1405135786
• Artikelnr.: 23810327

Rezensionen

"Philip Davis's Blackwell manifesto offers a spirited, polemicaldefence of Victorian literature in general, and Victorian realismin particular, against its modernist and postmodernist detractors."(Oxford Journals, 1 June 2011)

"In Why Victorian Literature Still Matters, Davis writes as areader. Readers, as he defines them, are different fromscholars and critics. Who distance themselves from the worldsbefore them by turning to history or theory instead. Readers,by contrast, do not distance themselves at all, but rather seekever more closeness." (Victorian Studies, Winter2010)"Davis's manifesto will capture the attention of a widereadership of intellectuals and serious readers alike who willappreciate his rigorous discussions and

insightful analyses, forwhile he directs such readers away from questions merely academicand critical, he is not afraid to reveal the personal significanceof Victorian literature to modern sensibilities." (The CambridgeQuarterly, June 2009)

"With its thought-provoking readings and non-pretentious displayof erudition, the book could serve well as a useful introduction tothe literature of the Victorian period or as a source ofstimulation for teachers and scholars in the field."(Neo-Victorian Studies, Winter 2008/2009)

"Why Victorian Literature Still Matters is at its bestwhen it attends to the small detail, the odd or apt grammaticalgesture, the minute editorial changes that produce meaning at themost micro of levels." (Times Higher Education Supplement,January 2009)

"Part of a series exploring a broad range of subjectareas, this book is admittedly subjective in its exploration of therelevance of Victorian literature in the 21st century.Davis notes that it is intended for the reader rather than thescholar, but it will be of more interest to academic than to publiclibraries." (Library Journal, January 2009)

"Philip Davis's [book] ... Was fascinating about Victorianwriting, and one of the best books written about how novels canwork." (The Guardian, November 2008)"This book argues fearlessly and passionately for therelevance of Victorian literature to contemporary society,addressing a question too rarely asked in literary study: whyshould we care?"
-Marion Thain, University of Birmingham