"[An] admirable volume . . . . Holland is impressively consistent in his own particular methodology, enabling fresh local readings of individual texts and a convincing overview that offers an integrated, politically revealing interpretation of a relatively discrete literary phenomenon. . . . Particularly interesting is the way Holland extends the historical work of Carolyn J. Eichner and Gay Gullickson on the role of women during the Commune, perhaps exemplified by the magnificent Louise Michel (1830–1905)."— Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy<br /> "[An] adroit study. . . . <i>Literature and Revolution</i> features a fascinating and capacious archive of newspaper and periodical reportage, illustrations, poetry, and a surprisingly large corpus of popular novels in which the Commune 'served as their backdrop.'"— Victorian Studies<br /> This timely book explores the Paris Commune's reverberations in Victorian literature, offering spirited readings of the many popular and canonical British writers who sought to contain (or revivify) it. The result is a fascinating meditation on literature and revolution which stands to make sizeable contributions to both our understanding of the Commune and late-nineteenth-century British literature and culture.— J. Michelle Coghlan, author of Sensational Internationalism: the Paris Commune and the Remapping of American Memory in th<br /> This superb book on the Commune's reception in late nineteenth-century Britain, which scrupulously and perceptively reconstructs the reactions of writers on both the Left and Right of the political spectrum, across a generous range of discursive forms, is a fine testament to Owen Holland's politically committed scholarship.— Matthew Beaumont, author of The Walker: On Finding and Losing Oneself in the Modern City<br />
This book examines how a heterogeneous group of authors in Britain responded to the Commune. In doing so, it provides the first full-length critical study of the reception and representation of the Commune in Britain during the closing decades of the nineteenth century, showing how discussions of the Commune functioned as a screen to project hope and fear, serving as a warning for some and an example to others. Writers considered in the book include John Ruskin, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Eliza Lynn Linton, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Margaret Oliphant, George Gissing, Henry James, William Morris, Alfred Austin and H.G. Wells. As the book shows, many, but not all, of these writers responded to the Commune with literary strategies that sought to stabilize bourgeois subjectivity in the wake of the traumatic shock of a revolutionary event. The book extends critical understanding of the Commune's cultural afterlives and explores the relationship between literature and revolution.
1 Introduction: A Commune in Literature
2 Refugees, Renegades, and Misrepresentation: Edward Bulwer Lytton and Eliza Lynn Linton
3 Dangerous Sympathies: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Anne Thackeray Ritchie, and Margaret Oliphant
4 "Dreams of the Coming Revolution": George Gissing's Workers in the Dawn
5 Revolution and Ressentiment: Henry James's The Princess Casamassima
6 The Uses of Tragedy: Alfred Austin's The Human Tragedy and William Morris's The Pilgrims of Hope
7 "It Had to Come Back": H. G. Wells's When the Sleeper Wakes
8 Conclusion: Looking without Seeing
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography