Adultery in the Novel: Contract and Transgression Contributor(s): Tanner, Tony (Author) |
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ISBN: 1421434415 ISBN-13: 9781421434414 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press OUR PRICE: $49.40 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 2019 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | European - General - Science | History - Literary Criticism | Modern - 18th Century |
Dewey: 809.33 |
Physical Information: 0.89" H x 6" W x 9" (1.28 lbs) 396 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Originally published in 1979. Adultery is a dominant feature in chivalric literature; it becomes a major concern in Shakespeare's last plays; and it forms the central plot of novels from Anna Karenina to Couples. Tony Tanner proposes that transgressions of the marriage contract take on a special significance in the "bourgeois novels" of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His interpretation begins with the general topic of adultery in literature and then zeroes in on three works--Rousseau's La Nouvelle Héloïse, Goethe's Die Wahlverwandtschaften, and Flaubert's Madame Bovary. His interpretation encompasses the role of women, the structure of the family, social mores, and the history of sexuality. |