18th, 19th-century literature query

[camille-love.livejournal.com]

Dear all,

I’m a Ph.D. student in English literature at an American university. As part of my work for next year (my third year), I need to pass a comprehensive exam in order to move on to the dissertation stage. My field of study is British literature and culture circa 1789-1914 (otherwise known as the long 19th century), and I’m incredibly interested in British responses to the French Revolution. For my exam, I chose two periods (18th and 19th-century British literature). The lists are quite general, featuring canonical works; however, I can tailor them to fit my personal research interests, with an eye to the dissertation topic...

To this end, one of my advisors suggested that I create a bibliography of British literature from the 18th and 19th centuries that relate to the French Revolution, which I would add to my reading list for the exam. I’ve put together a short list based on what I’m aware is out there, but I would appreciate the input of this community. If you can, please recommend any British literature (poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction, etc.) from the long 19th century in Britain on the subject of the Revolution.

Again, any suggestions for additions would be appreciated. My central interest is the 1789 Revolution, but works on the subject of the Napoleonic wars or 19th c. revolutions would be relevant as well.

Romantic Fiction / Prose Edmund Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France Thomas Paine - The Rights of Man Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women William Godwin - Caleb Williams Ann Radcliffe - The Mysteries of Udolpho Mary Shelley - Frankenstein Helen Maria Williams - Julia (1790), Letters Written in France (1790) Matthew Lewis - The Monk (1796) Ann Radcliffe - The Italian (1797) Fanny Burney - The Wanderer (1814) Jacobin / anti-Jacobin novelists William Godwin Charlotte Turner Smith Elizabeth Inchbald Romantic Drama / Poetry Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey - The Fall of Robespierre (1794) Victorian Fiction (major authors) William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair Edward Bulwer-Lytton - Zanoni (1842) Anthony Trollope - La Vendée: An Historical Romance (1850) Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities (1859) Thomas Hardy - The Dynasts (1904-1908) Victorian Fiction (minor authors) Catherine Frances Gore - The Reign of Terror (1827), The Tuileries (1831) John Sterling - Arthur Coningsby (1833) Walter Thornbury - Wildfire (1864) Henry Kingsley - Mademoiselle Mathilde (1868) Margaret Roberts - On the Edge of the Storm (1869) Marianne Dale - Crowned with the Immortals (1896) Victorian Prose William Makepeace Thackeray - The History of the Next French Revolution Thomas Carlyle - The French Revolution (1837) George Henry Lewes - Life of Robespierre (1849)

Comments

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Who knows though, maybe you'll disagree with me. (Though I have a hard time imagining it if you appreciate literature as much as someone getting a doctorate in it would have to.)

I would say it's not worth redeeming, but I would be speaking more from a historian's/political point of view that from that of its literary merit, which is decidedly immensely superior to The Scarlet Pimpernel's.