British Writers and Paris 1830–1875
Elisabeth Jay
Abstract
Drawing on a wealth of contemporary sources, this book examines British writers’ engagement with mid-nineteenth-century Paris. This historically grounded account of the ways in which Paris touched the careers and work of both major and minor Victorian writers considers both their actual experiences of an urban environment—distinctively different from anything Britain offered—and the extent to which this became absorbed and expressed within the Victorian imaginary. The first part of this book explores these writers’ reaction to the swiftly changing politics and topography of Paris, before consi ... More
Drawing on a wealth of contemporary sources, this book examines British writers’ engagement with mid-nineteenth-century Paris. This historically grounded account of the ways in which Paris touched the careers and work of both major and minor Victorian writers considers both their actual experiences of an urban environment—distinctively different from anything Britain offered—and the extent to which this became absorbed and expressed within the Victorian imaginary. The first part of this book explores these writers’ reaction to the swiftly changing politics and topography of Paris, before considering the nature of their social interactions with the Parisians, through networks provided by institutions such as the British Embassy and the salons. The second part of the book examines the significance of Paris for mid-nineteenth-century Anglophone journalists, culminating in a chapter devoted to demonstrating the ways in which the young Thackeray’s exposure to Parisian print culture shaped him as both writer and artist. The final part focuses on fictional representations of Paris, revealing the frequency with which they relied upon previous literary sources, and how the surprisingly narrow palette of subgenres, structures, and characters they employed contributed to the characteristic, and sometimes contradictory, prejudices of a swiftly growing British readership.
Keywords:
British writers,
fiction,
history,
journalism,
mid-nineteenth-century Paris,
sociability,
salons,
Thackeray,
topography
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199655243 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199655243.001.0001 |
