19th c. represenations

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

I'm very interested in how the Revolution was conceived in the Victorian imagination--most significantly, via fiction--especially with regard to representations that diverged from the stereotypical, Burke-esque, "the French Revolution=wanton carnage" view. I'm very familiar with A Tale of Two Cities and The Scarlet Pimpernel, but I was curious to see if you guys had any other reading suggestions. Minor authors/works, questionable literary merit, not a problem. I would prefer works in which the Revolution is the subject and not just a passing allusion. Even better if the work incorporates the 19th c. French revolutions, in addition to the (best) 1789 Revolution. Merci!

PS--for the sake of my research, I'm looking for British representations, not French

Comments

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Are the Romantics (Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, etc.) too early for you?

I can't think of anything straight off by Victorians, but since I gravitate towards the Romantics I'm afraid my real knowledge of the French Revolution in British literature ends in like, 1830. Dang, this would be easier if you included French lit. since most 19th century French literature was a reaction to the French Revolution and to Napoleon. Um... I have no idea when Sabatini wrote Scaramouche, or if he was actually British, though it was first written in English... Thackaray's Vanity Fair has some stuff about the French Revolution, though its focus is the Napoleonic era....

I'd check JSTOR or an article database to see if there's an article written about the FR in the Victorain imagaination somewhere. There's got to be an article on A Tale of Two Cities in its literary/historical context somewhere.

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely check JSTOR.

[(Anonymous)]

Anthony Trollope wrote a novel titled La Vendée dealing with the French Revolution. You can't get any more Victorian than Anthony Trollope!

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

Oh my, how could I have missed this one? Thanks!

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

There's this website I just found literally two days ago, which you might find useful, though it's too early for you - http://locutus.ucr.edu/~cathy/reg5.html It lists every year from 1790-1820 (though the site itself has things going until later), with literature either set in that time period or written in said time period. You might find something useful there.

Regarding the actual Victorian period, though, I don't have anything. Sorry! (Though you should try Proquest, someone might have written a disseration on it - I think I've seen one or two on the subject)

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

Sounds good--thanks!

[misatheredpanda.livejournal.com]

Carlyle! Okay, so it's 'not fiction' - but then, I keep it with the novels on my shelf, haha. It's definitely a very imaginative work and the writing is absolutely gorgeous; I think at certain points he does a better job of evoking the emotion of Revolutionary events better than the fictional sources (not kidding, I cried at least once while reading it). And in any case I imagine it might be significant in it's impact on other Victorians writing about the French Revolution..?

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I do like Carlyle--Sartor Resartus is a fave, but I've never actually read his FR book all the way through (will do so, after your persuasive recommendation). Thanks!

[misatheredpanda.livejournal.com]

It's a good summertime book anyway (well, maybe just because so many interesting Revolutionary things happened in the summer!), I spent a lot of time lying around outside reading it. Makes me nostalgic. And Sartor Resartus is next on my reading list so glad to hear it's that good. :D

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Have a look at some of the essays written in the early 19thc looking back at theVictorian attitude to the French Revolution by G. K. Chesterton - if you google 'g.k. chesterton' and 'robespierre' or 'french revolution' it should bring up several of his essays - I really like 'a criminal head' but he's written a lot on the subject and complained that the British don't get to read original/contemporary writings, so never learn the facts. Sorry I can't remember the titles at the mo but it's after midnight and i've been travelling for 6 hours! Look through his Dickens ones - I think it's discussed in an essay on Hard Times, as well as the obvious Tale of Two Cities, and there's another essay on Ireland, I think...I seem to remember Orwell saying the British get their view of the french revolution as a mountain of severed heads from dickens...but I can't remember the source of the quote.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/usurers/14/

here's an example...I particularly like his comment on the portrayal of aristos : "all of them good-looking" - and that was before cinema gave us hordes of pretty aristo girls with lovely hair being wheeled round in tumbrils...

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dickens/english/e_chd the tower of heads quote is in here...it looks like it might be a useful essay, anyway!

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

And, for a laugh, there's Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 'Zanoni' - some (maybe all?) of it is online via google books or a similar service - it is truly dire. There is a prize for bad writing called the 'Bulwer-Lytton prize' to commemorate the sheer awfulness of his prose. I think he is responsible for the line 'it was a dark and stormy night', too.

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks for the great suggestions! I never would have thought to check out those guys. Very helpful indeed:)