Overview

Reviewed by The TLS The previously unpublished essays collected here are by literary scholars who have dedicated their lives to reading and studying nineteenth-century British fiction and the Victorian world. Each writes about a novel that has acquired personal relevance to them - a work that has become entwined with their own story, or that remains elusive or compelling for reasons hard to explain.   These are essays in the original sense of the word, attempts: individual and experiential approaches to literary works that have subjective meanings beyond social facts. By reflecting on their own histories with novels taught, studied, researched, and re-experienced in different contexts over many years, the contributors reveal how an aesthetic object comes to inhabit our critical, pedagogical, and personal lives.   By inviting scholars to share their experiences with a favorite novel without the pressure of an analytical agenda, the sociable essays in My Victorian Novel seek to restore some vitality to the act of literary criticism, and encourage other scholars to talk about the importance of reading in their lives and the stories that have enchanted and transformed them.

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“The subjective, autobiographical approach to scholarly writing has no better advocate than Annette Federico. Her wise and wide-ranging introduction identifies it, surely correctly, not so much as a recent trend as an entirely natural way of relating to literature. . . . These personal journeys are often passionate and always highly readable. Recounted by critics who know the novels inside out, they encourage others to honour the exhilaration of their earliest reading experiences, while remaining open to new questions and reassessments... The results are inspiring.” — The Times Literary Supplement “Annette Federico's My Victorian Novel is an exhilarating anthology. The essays she assembles here—and they are personal essays, not professional ‘articles’—are riveting narratives even while they are also astute literary analyses. At a moment when the humanities are in the doldrums and theory seems to have withered on the vine, these lively memoirs of richly receptive readings point to a new way forward, an almost Arnoldian compromise between sophisticated thinking and self-aware feeling.”—Sandra M. Gilbert, University of California, Davis, author of Rereading Women: Thirty Years of Exploring Our Literary Traditions “'Professionalism is a means not an end. Less is more. Professors are better off when they professionalize less and risk extinction when professionalization is primary.’ This is the first of the ‘95 Theses’ the poet-academic Charles Bernstein published in the MLA’s journal Profession in 2016. My Victorian Novel rises engagingly and entertainingly to Bernstein’s challenge. Threading together 15 mainly North American lives from our contemporary moment and 15 mainly English novels of the nineteenth century, it does more for literature by doing less for its professors. Mixing up the sexual and the scholarly, the affective and the intellectual, the personal and the political, it celebrates novel reading in fifteen ways, showing how it mattered in the past and why it matters differently now. An essential book for the amateur who lives on in every professional and for so-called ‘ordinary’ readers too.” — Peter D. McDonald, University of Oxford, author of Artefacts of Writing: Ideas of the State and Communities of Letters from Matthew Arnold to Xu Bing “Personal, erudite, and provocative, My Victorian Novel is an engaging collection of essays, which speaks to the intimate nature of our relationship with books. Each essay functions as a miniature memoir and paean to the enduring power and pleasures of the Victorian novel. As contributors reflect on their evolving emotional attachments and critical experiences with novels ranging from The Pickwick Papers to Dracula, what emerges throughout the collection is each work’s enduring and unique capacity to instruct, delight, and surprise. It is impossible to read any of the essays by this distinguished group of scholars without similarly reflecting on that one remarkable book — the steadfast literary companion of our own lives—that has indelibly shaped our personal and professional histories. My Victorian Novel is not just the book that Victorianists have secretly been longing for, it is the book that literary studies has been waiting for.” — Maria K. Bachman, Middle Tennessee State University, coeditor of The Socio-Literary Imaginary in 19th and 20th Century Britain: Victorian and Edwardian Inflections “Call it postcritique, autocriticism, or personal criticism—the contributors to this smart, readable volume tell us how and why a particular Victorian novel got hold of their imaginations and never let go. In these deft, candid accounts, My Victorian Novel shows that literature professors read like everyone else—with their hearts as well as minds.” — Susan Fraiman, University of Virginia, author of Extreme Domesticity: A View from the Margins “Fresh new approaches to novels fondly remembered and much-loved come splendidly framed by a mature and sophisticated return to the effort in the last quarter of the 20th century to revitalize writing about literature via restoration of the essay and personal voice . That effort fizzled; my hope is that this 'project' will succeed. If it does, it will owe a good deal to this informed, passionate, informing, and enjoyable book, skillfully edited, with an excellent introduction (and a gem of a foreword by Jane Tompkins).” — G. Douglas Atkins, professor emeritus, University of Kansas, author of such books as Estranging the Familiar: Toward a Revitalized Critical Writing, Tracing the Essay, and T.S. Eliot and the Essay

Personal, erudite, and provocative, My Victorian Novel is an engaging collection of essays, which speaks to the intimate nature of our relationship with books. Each essay functions as a miniature memoir and paean to the enduring power and pleasures of the Victorian novel. As contributors reflect on their evolving emotional attachments and critical experiences with novels ranging from The Pickwick Papers to Dracula, what emerges throughout the collection is each work's enduring and unique capacity to instruct, delight, and surprise. It is impossible to read any of the essays by this distinguished group of scholars without similarly reflecting on that one remarkable book--the steadfast literary companion of our own lives--that has indelibly shaped our personal and professional histories. My Victorian Novel is not just the book that Victorianists have secretly been longing for, it is the book that literary studies has been waiting for. --Maria K. Bachman, Middle Tennessee State University, coeditor of The Socio-Literary Imaginary in 19th and 20th Century Britain: Victorian and Edwardian Inflections Call it postcritique, autocriticism, or personal criticism--the contributors to this smart, readable volume tell us how and why a particular Victorian novel got hold of their imaginations and never let go. In these deft, candid accounts, My Victorian Novel shows that literature professors read like everyone else--with their hearts as well as minds. --Susan Fraiman, University of Virginia, author of Extreme Domesticity: A View from the Margins Annette Federico's My Victorian Novel is an exhilarating anthology. The essays she assembles here--and they are personal essays, not professional 'articles'--are riveting narratives even while they are also astute literary analyses. At a moment when the humanities are in the doldrums and theory seems to have withered on the vine, these lively memoirs of richly receptive readings point to a new way forward, an almost Arnoldian compromise between sophisticated thinking and self-aware feeling. --Sandra M. Gilbert, University of California, Davis, author of Rereading Women: Thirty Years of Exploring Our Literary Traditions 'Professionalism is a means not an end. Less is more. Professors are better off when they professionalize less and risk extinction when professionalization is primary.' This is the first of the '95 Theses' the poet-academic Charles Bernstein published in the MLA's journal Profession in 2016. My Victorian Novel rises engagingly and entertainingly to Bernstein's challenge. Threading together 15 mainly North American lives from our contemporary moment and 15 mainly English novels of the nineteenth century, it does more for literature by doing less for its professors. Mixing up the sexual and the scholarly, the affective and the intellectual, the personal and the political, it celebrates novel reading in fifteen ways, showing how it mattered in the past and why it matters differently now. An essential book for the amateur who lives on in every professional and for so-called 'ordinary' readers too. --Peter D. McDonald, University of Oxford, author of Artefacts of Writing: Ideas of the State and Communities of Letters from Matthew Arnold to Xu Bing Fresh new approaches to novels fondly remembered and much-loved come splendidly framed by a mature and sophisticated return to the effort in the last quarter of the 20th century to revitalize writing about literature via restoration of the essay and personal voice . That effort fizzled; my hope is that this 'project' will succeed. If it does, it will owe a good deal to this informed, passionate, informing, and enjoyable book, skillfully edited, with an excellent introduction (and a gem of a foreword by Jane Tompkins). --G. Douglas Atkins, professor emeritus, University of Kansas, author of such books as Estranging the Familiar: Toward a Revitalized Critical Writing, Tracing the Essay, and T.S. Eliot and the Essay

The subjective, autobiographical approach to scholarly writing has no better advocate than Annette Federico. Her wise and wide-ranging introduction identifies it, surely correctly, not so much as a recent trend as an entirely natural way of relating to literature. . . . These personal journeys are often passionate and always highly readable. Recounted by critics who know the novels inside out, they encourage others to honour the exhilaration of their earliest reading experiences, while remaining open to new questions and reassessments... The results are inspiring. - The Times Literary Supplement Annette Federico's My Victorian Novel is an exhilarating anthology. The essays she assembles here-and they are personal essays, not professional 'articles'-are riveting narratives even while they are also astute literary analyses. At a moment when the humanities are in the doldrums and theory seems to have withered on the vine, these lively memoirs of richly receptive readings point to a new way forward, an almost Arnoldian compromise between sophisticated thinking and self-aware feeling. -Sandra M. Gilbert, University of California, Davis, author of Rereading Women: Thirty Years of Exploring Our Literary Traditions 'Professionalism is a means not an end. Less is more. Professors are better off when they professionalize less and risk extinction when professionalization is primary.' This is the first of the '95 Theses' the poet-academic Charles Bernstein published in the MLA's journal Profession in 2016. My Victorian Novel rises engagingly and entertainingly to Bernstein's challenge. Threading together 15 mainly North American lives from our contemporary moment and 15 mainly English novels of the nineteenth century, it does more for literature by doing less for its professors. Mixing up the sexual and the scholarly, the affective and the intellectual, the personal and the political, it celebrates novel reading in fifteen ways, showing how it mattered in the past and why it matters differently now. An essential book for the amateur who lives on in every professional and for so-called 'ordinary' readers too. - Peter D. McDonald, University of Oxford, author of Artefacts of Writing: Ideas of the State and Communities of Letters from Matthew Arnold to Xu Bing Personal, erudite, and provocative, My Victorian Novel is an engaging collection of essays, which speaks to the intimate nature of our relationship with books. Each essay functions as a miniature memoir and paean to the enduring power and pleasures of the Victorian novel. As contributors reflect on their evolving emotional attachments and critical experiences with novels ranging from The Pickwick Papers to Dracula, what emerges throughout the collection is each work's enduring and unique capacity to instruct, delight, and surprise. It is impossible to read any of the essays by this distinguished group of scholars without similarly reflecting on that one remarkable book - the steadfast literary companion of our own lives-that has indelibly shaped our personal and professional histories. My Victorian Novel is not just the book that Victorianists have secretly been longing for, it is the book that literary studies has been waiting for. - Maria K. Bachman, Middle Tennessee State University, coeditor of The Socio-Literary Imaginary in 19th and 20th Century Britain: Victorian and Edwardian Inflections Call it postcritique, autocriticism, or personal criticism-the contributors to this smart, readable volume tell us how and why a particular Victorian novel got hold of their imaginations and never let go. In these deft, candid accounts, My Victorian Novel shows that literature professors read like everyone else-with their hearts as well as minds. - Susan Fraiman, University of Virginia, author of Extreme Domesticity: A View from the Margins Fresh new approaches to novels fondly remembered and much-loved come splendidly framed by a mature and sophisticated return to the effort in the last quarter of the 20th century to revitalize writing about literature via restoration of the essay and personal voice . That effort fizzled; my hope is that this 'project' will succeed. If it does, it will owe a good deal to this informed, passionate, informing, and enjoyable book, skillfully edited, with an excellent introduction (and a gem of a foreword by Jane Tompkins). - G. Douglas Atkins, professor emeritus, University of Kansas, author of such books as Estranging the Familiar: Toward a Revitalized Critical Writing, Tracing the Essay, and T.S. Eliot and the Essay

Author Information

Annette R. Federico is a professor of English at James Madison University. She is the author of four books, most recently Thus I Lived with Words: Robert Louis Stevenson and the Writer's Craft, and editor of Gilbert and Gubar's 'The Madwoman in the Attic' after Thirty Years (University of Missouri Press). She lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

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