A 'base and spurious thing': Reading and deceptive femininity in Ellen Wood's Parkwater (1857)

Allan, JM ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4484-7778 2011, 'A 'base and spurious thing': Reading and deceptive femininity in Ellen Wood's Parkwater (1857)' , Critical Survey, 23 (1) , pp. 8-24.

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Abstract

Concentrating on Ellen Wood’s Parkwater, a little-known New Monthly Magazine serial, this article attempts to complicate the long-standing construction of Wood as a ‘quiet sensationalist’. It argues that Wood’s serial was self-consciously appealing to the New Monthly’s male readers and thus incorporated scenes and details of a surprisingly graphic nature. At the same time, the article situates the narrative within the context of a new commodity culture, as well as the 1857 murder trial of Madeleine Smith, suggesting that Wood’s exploration of deceptive femininity resonates with current events in a particularly insistent manner.

Item Type:	Article
Themes:	Memory, Text and Place
Schools:	Schools > School of Humanities, Languages & Social Sciences > Centre for English Literature and Language
Journal or Publication Title:	Critical Survey
Publisher:	Berghahn Journals
Refereed:	Yes
ISSN:	0011-1570
Depositing User:	Users 29196 not found.
Date Deposited:	17 Jan 2012 10:46
Last Modified:	28 Aug 2021 19:38
URI:	http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/19387

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