The Power of Lies : Transgression, Class, and Gender in Victorian Fiction

Although moral earnestness has long been considered characteristic of the Victorians, Kucich maintains that English fiction in the nineteenth century was as interested in lies as in honesty. In this important book, Kucich explores the fascination with lying in novels by Anthony Trollope, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Ellen Wood, Thomas Hardy, and Sarah Grand. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction PART I. THE BOUNDARIES OF BOURGEOIS CULTURE 1. Trollope and the Antibourgeois Elite 2. Competitive Elites in Wilkie Collins: Cultural Intellectuals and Their Professional Others PART II. SEXUAL INVERSION 3. Lying and Impulsiveness in Elizabeth Gaskell 4. The Professional and the Mother: Moral Disempowerment in East Lynne PART III. TRANSGRESSION IN LATE .. VICTORIAN FICTION 5. Moral Authority in Hardy's Late Novels: The Gendering of Art 6. Feminism's Ethical Contradictions: Sarah Grand and New Woman Writing Afterword Index