Victorian Sensational Fiction

Download or read book Victorian Sensational Fiction written by Richard Fantina and published by Palgrave MacMillan. This book was released on 2010-01-29 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sensation fiction emerged in the 1860s, and immediately generated alarm as many critics viewed the genre as a threat to prevailing Victorian values. Charles Reade, along with Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, was among the most well-known sensation novelists. With its explicit critique of power relations in the fields of medicine, criminal justice, and sexual mores, Reade’s work anticipates Michel Foucault’s theories elaborated a century later. Reade’s work also provides rare glimpses of alternative sexualities and gender identities in nineteenth-century fiction. This book recovers the fiction of Charles Reade as a body of work that anticipates recent trends in literary and cultural theory.