Is the novel a category of knowledge that merits serious study? Even if the novel has shed the stigma of being mindless entertainment, one might easily assume that reading a novel is not "studying," unless one reads closely and carefully, preferably from a scholarly edition or for a scholarly purpose. "Novel Pedagogy" explores…

Through a close reading of five nineteenth-century instructional books in the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books, this essay examines the relationship between new print technologies, memory, teaching, and learning. The article beings with a discussion of Comenius's seventeenth-century "Orbis Pictus," considered the first…

Victorian fiction can provide a valuable source of information about society by virtue of its topicality and realistic techniques, influenced by contemporary journalism. In particular, the novels of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy throw light on literacy practices, including reading aloud. The higher the literacy levels of the novels' characters,…

During Charles Dickens's lifetime, education publications such as "The Union Sixth Reader" already shared methods for teaching his works. "The Union Sixth Reader" gives evidence to educational concerns surrounding the best uses of language, as though Dickens's turns of phrase could empower students. Today, educators may not…

Heralded as a sympathizer with the oppressed nineteenth century femininity, Thomas Hardy adopted an aggressive stance towards the institutionalized codes of the time, particularly the ideal of femininity which results in presenting him as one of the promethean forerunners of "New Woman" fiction. His outspoken attitudes are tangible in…

As a prolific nineteenth-century novelist, Thomas Hardy witnessed how women were treated as well as the dreadful conditions in which they lived. Well aware of the nineteenth-century limitations on femininity, Hardy stood for women's downtrodden rights. Henceforth, so as to examine Hardy's personal thoughts and impressions towards the prevailing…

Although the characters speak English, Anne Bronte's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" explores interactions among representatives of different speech communities. The protagonist, Helen Graham, moves through communities differing enough from hers to create misunderstandings. Her difficulties can be clarified through Hymes' model of the speech…

This paper ranges widely to track of the evolution of Hardy's view on love and marriage, and analyzes two reasons why this unique view developed: one is Nature; another is Time.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon's novels and stories exemplify some of the main issues surrounding women's texts and their place in literature: aesthetic value, intellectual challenge, universality, and contemporary popularity. Her work, it may be argued, betrays occasional aesthetic imperfections; however, she produced a tremendous amount of published…

Proposing that Thomas Hardy's fiction exhibits strong Gothic sensibilities which offer insight into his artistic vision and add to the power of his fiction, creating a new form of the Gothic, a Victorian Gothic, this dissertation reassesses the Gothic strains in Hardy's fiction. The dissertation is in eight chapters: (1) Introduction to Hardy's…