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Dickens and the Sentimental Tradition

Dickens and the Sentimental Tradition

Valerie Purton

(2012)

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Abstract

‘Dickens and the Sentimental Tradition’ is a timely study of the ‘sentimental’ in Dickens’s novels, which places them in the context of the tradition of Fielding, Richardson, Sterne, Goldsmith, Sheridan and Lamb. This study re-evaluates Dickens’s presentation of emotion – first within the eighteenth-century tradition and then within the dissimilar nineteenth-century tradition – as part of a complex literary heritage that enables him to critique nineteenth-century society.

The book sheds light on the construction of feelings and of the ‘good heart’, ideas which resonate with current critical debates about literary ‘affect’. As the text argues, such an analysis reveals sentimentalism to be a crucial element in fully understanding the achievement of Dickens and his contemporaries.

The first chapter of the book outlines the sentimentalist tradition in English literature from the Middle Ages onwards. The second and third chapters then examine Dickens’s eighteenth-century inheritance in the works of Sterne, Fielding, Goldsmith and Sheridan, whilst Chapter Four explores Dickens’s inheritance from Charles Lamb and his acting in sentimental plays by Bulwer Lytton and Wilkie Collins. Chapter Five analyses three early novels, including ‘Nicholas Nickleby’, revealing the extremism of post-Romantic sentimentalism. In Chapter Six, three later novels including ‘Dombey and Son’ are reread in terms of Dickens’s changing use of sentimentalist rhetoric to achieve remarkably subversive effects. The final chapter then looks at other examples of nineteenth-century sentimental writing, and at the ‘afterlife’ of the mode in the past two centuries.


‘“Dickens and the Sentimental Tradition” is a challenging and deeply rewarding study of Dickens’s reworking of the legacy of sentimentalism. Valerie Purton’s revaluation of the most denigrated and least understood aspect of Dickens’s writing should be essential reading not just for Dickens’s admirers but for anyone who doubts his greatness.’ —Dr Paul V. W. Schlicke, University of Aberdeen


‘Dickens and the Sentimental Tradition’ is a timely study of the ‘sentimental’ in Dickens’s novels, which places them in the context of the tradition of Fielding, Richardson, Sterne, Goldsmith, Sheridan and Lamb. This study re-evaluates Dickens’s presentation of emotion – first within the eighteenth-century tradition and then within the dissimilar nineteenth-century tradition – as part of a complex literary heritage that enables him to critique nineteenth-century society. The book sheds light on the construction of feelings and of the ‘good heart’, ideas which resonate with current critical debates about literary ‘affect’. Sentimentalism, as the text demonstrates, is crucial to understanding fully the achievement of Dickens and his contemporaries.


‘[A] challenging study of this vexed literary mode […] [O]ne of the many strengths of this book is [Purton’s] detailed and discriminating discussion of the genealogy of Dickens’s sentimentalism in eighteenth-century literary practices.’ —Malcom Andrews, ‘The Dickensian’


‘In “Dickens and the Sentimental Tradition”, Valerie Purton persuasively demonstrates that we read too narrowly and do a disservice to Dickens and to our own reading experience when we dismiss sentimental scenes without employing our critical faculties. […] Purton’s study offers a rich context for understanding the sentimental tradition and provides a wealth of intelligent, perceptive readings. [This is] an extremely intelligent and well-researched analysis of Dickens’s transformation of the sentimental tradition.’ —Natalie McKnight, ‘Dickens Quarterly’


‘If you thought Oscar Wilde’s laughter at the death of Little Nell said it all about the sentimental Dickens, this radical revaluation of the complex tradition of literary and theatrical sentimentalism, culminating with distinctive power in Dickens’s fiction, will make you think – and maybe weep – again. Scholarly criticism of rare courage and conviction.’ —Dr Rick Allen, Anglia Ruskin University


'This remarkable book … is surely one of the most original and illuminating studies of Dickens’s novels to have been published in recent years'.—Michael Slater-Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck, past President of the International Dickens Fellowship, and former editor of its journal, 'The Dickensian'.


‘Purton draws upon an impressive array of eighteenth-century texts to explore how Dickens’ own definition of sentimentality was defined and informed by his readings and “mis-readings” of these works [… and] convincingly argues that while eighteenth-century sentimentalism was closely bound up with anarchic humour and earthly concerns, Dickens’ sentimentalism is an attempt to deny the physical in order to present all human experience in spiritual terms. […] Purton rattles through Dickens’ work at a swift pace. Each selected example is illuminating […] The clear and elegant prose and logical and perceptive analysis makes the book appealing and accessible to scholars and students alike.’ —Katherine Faulkner, ‘The History of Emotions Blog’


Valerie Purton is Reader in Victorian Literature at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.


Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Dickens and the Sentimental Tradition i
FRONT MATTER\r i
Half Title\r i
Series Page\r ii
Title\r iii
Copyright\r iv
Dedication\r v
CONTENTS vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
A NOTE ON THE TEXT xi
Cover Illustration xi
MAIN MATTER\r xiii
INTRODUCTION xiii
Sentimentalism: Some Issues in Brief xx
1) Sentimentalism as philosophical optimism xx
2) The vocabulary of sentimentalism: The heart and the head xx
3) Sentimentalism and Christianity xxi
4) Sentimental tears xxii
5) Sentimentalism and the ‘Romantic child’ xxii
6) Sentimentalism and eroticism xxiii
7) Sentimentalism as ‘curative’ xxiv
8) Sentimentalism and death xxiv
9) Sentimentalism and subversion xxv
10) Sentimentalism and drama xxvi
Chapter 1 DICKENS AND THE SENTIMENTALIST TRADITION\r 1
The Sentimentalist Tradition: Eighteenth-Century Drama 2
The Sentimental Tradition: Etymological and Functionalist Approaches 3
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) 6
Nahum Tate’s King Lear (1681) and W. C. Macready’s King Lear (1838) 7
The Sentimental Tradition in Nineteenth-Century Culture 8
John Keble, Lectures on Poetry (1832–41) 9
Charles Bray, The Education of the Feelings (1838) 9
Charles Bell, The Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression as Connected with the Fine Arts [1806] (1844) 11
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859); The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) 11
Horace Dobell, On Affections of the Heart (1872) 12
The Sentimental Tradition and Victorian Tears 14
Sentimentalism and Nineteenth-Century Psychology 15
Sentimentalism and Nineteenth-Century Drama 16
Chapter 2 SENTIMENTALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS IN THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY NOVEL: FIELDING, RICHARDSON AND STERNE 19
Henry Fielding 20
Samuel Richardson 24
Laurence Sterne 29
Chapter 3 SENTIMENTALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DRAMA: GOLDSMITH AND SHERIDAN 45
Oliver Goldsmith 48
The Good-Natured Man (1768) 50
She Stoops to Conquer: or, The Mistakes of a Night (1773) 54
Richard Brinsley Sheridan 61
The Rivals (1775) 63
The School For Scandal (1777) 65
Chapter 4 DICKENS AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY DRAMA 69
Charles Lamb 69
Dickens on the Nineteenth-Century Stage 73
Every Man in His Humour 75
Not So Bad As We Seem or Many Sides to a Character (1851) 77
The Frozen Deep 81
Chapter 5 THE EARLY NOVELS AND THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD 91
The Vicar of Wakefield 91
The Pickwick Papers 95
Oliver Twist 97
Nicholas Nickleby 98
The Old Curiosity Shop 102
A Note on A Christmas Carol 110
Martin Chuzzlewit 110
Chapter 6 THE LATER NOVELS 121
Dombey and Son 123
Bleak House 140
Hard Times 142
Little Dorrit 144
A Tale of Two Cities 145
Great Expectations 146
Our Mutual Friend 147
Conclusion THE AFTERLIFE OF SENTIMENTALISM 151
Nineteenth-Century Anti-sentimentalism 152
Twentieth-Century Anti-sentimentalism 154
Later Twentieth Century: The Rehabilitation of Sentimentalism? 155
Twenty-first Century: The ‘Affective Turn’ and the Rehabilitation of Sentimentalism 156
Summary 159
END MATTER\r 161
NOTES 161
Introduction 161
Chapter 1 Dickens and the Sentimentalist Tradition 163
Chapter 2 Sentimentalism and its Discontents in the Eighteenth-Century Novel: Fielding, Richardson and Sterne 165
Chapter 3 Sentimentalism and its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century Drama: Goldsmith and Sheridan 168
Chapter 4 Dickens and Nineteenth-Century Drama 169
Chapter 5 The Early Novels and The Vicar of Wakefield\r 172
Chapter 6 The Later Novels 174
Conclusion The Afterlife of Sentimentalism 176
BIBLIOGRAPHY 179
Primary Sources 179
Secondary Sources 180
INDEX 185