The ExcursionUniversity Press of Kentucky, 21. 11. 2021 - Počet stran: 240 Frances Brooke (1724-1789), journalist, translator, playwright, novelist, and even co-manager of a theater, was described as "perhaps the first female novel-writer who attained a perfect purity and polish of style." Today, Brooke is known primarily for The History of Emily Montague, one of the earliest novels about Canada, where she lived for a number of years. But it is her third novel, The Excursion, that is an important example of the fashionable and popular English novels of the late 1770s. Written for the very audience it portrays, this novel introduces the heroine, Maria Villiers, to London's "gentle" society and its glittering pastimes. Brooke drew upon the English courtship novel in the tradition of Eliza Haywood, Henry Fielding, and Frances Burney for her novel's overarching plot structure. But instead of concentrating on Maria's romantic adventures, she experiments with unusual treatments of subplots and unconventional characters. The most interesting aspect of her story is the development of Maria's ambition to win fame and fortune as a writer; it is one of the few portraits of a woman with literary ambitions by an early woman writer. Brooke's wry narrative voice foreshadows that of Jane Austen. The editors' introduction places The Excursion firmly in the tradition of the English novel, provides a fresh biography of Brooke, and brings together the most important eighteenth- and twentieth-century criticism of Brooke's work. The second volume in the series Eighteenth-Century Novels by Women, The Excursion contributes to our understanding of the development of the novel and offers a lively view of women's position in eighteenth-century English society. |
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... marriages (no. 2) and fashionable lifestyles (no. 20).21 The woman's point of view contrasts with that of papers such as The Ladies' Curiosity, however, which were written by men for women. Brooke's writing in The Old Maid about marriage ...
... married to the Reverend John Brooke, vicar of St. Augustine's, Norwich, rector of Colney, Norfolk, sequestrator at St ... marriage. He spent three months as chaplain on a hospital ship in 1757 and moved to Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island ...
... marriage, and to her developing romance with Colonel Bellville.44 The novel form has always absorbed diverse modes ... marriage in this novel, she has characters observe that the Hurons believe marriage for life “contrary to the laws of ...
... marriage and parents committing their daughters to a nunnery. A French woman reminds the company that nuns have a year of probation, while wives have no trial period and no reprieve. Brooke continues to explore the rules of polite ...
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Note on the Text | |
Notes to the Novel | |
Revisions Made in the Second Edition | |
Selected Bibliography | |