Gone Girls, 1684-1901
Flights of Feminist Resistance in the Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British Novel
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:21st Jul '26
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In Gone Girls, 1684-1901, Nora Gilbert argues that the persistent trope of female characters running away from some iteration of 'home' played a far more influential role in the histories of both the rise of the novel and the rise of modern feminism than previous accounts have acknowledged. For as much as the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British novel may have worked to establish the private, middle-class, domestic sphere as the rightful (and sole) locus of female authority in the ways that prior critics have outlined, it was also continually showing its readers female characters who refused to buy into such an agenda--refusals which resulted, strikingly often, in those characters' physical flights from home.
Review from previous edition Gilbert's fetching descriptions of this underexamined narrative feature make a compelling contribution. Gone Girls will inspire some of its readers to bolt directly back to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novels that, as the author eloquently puts it, ‘remind us of the radical, often underestimated potency of running to break free. * Devoney Looser, The Times Literary Supplement *
In Gone Girls, 1684-1901, Nora Gilbert provides a stirring account of the women and girls who ran from their presumed sites of safety and comfort—home. Through sharp writing and incisive analysis, Gilbert reminds us that sometimes the best thing a woman can do to regain her agency is to walk or run from those who try to limit or control her. * NACBS Stansky Book Prize selection committee *
Gone Girls is simultaneously an expansive scholarly monograph and a thrilling historical chronicle that establishes the role of women fleeing from home as part of the rise of the novel and modern feminism. Akin to the female runners at its core, Gilbert’s book breaks the conventional mould of leisurely textual analysis by energetically traversing a wide landscape of temporality, genre, and authorship. * Riya Das, Victoriographies *
Gilbert covers two centuries of ground in this study, briskly teasing out runaway threads from long, elaborate novels and providing economical summaries of each. She is a skilled storyteller, providing a birds-eye view of complicated plots while highlighting specific feminine departures within them. * Kathleen Lubey, Victorian Studies *
ISBN: 9780197908013
Dimensions: 13mm x 156mm x 234mm
Weight: 340g
238 pages