Overview

When we look closely at dress in a novel we begin to enrich our sense of the novel's historical and social context. More than this, wealth, class, beauty and moral rectitude can all be coded in fabric. In the modern novel, narratives are increasingly situated within the consciousness of characters, and it is the experience of dress that tells us about the context and the emotional, political and psychological values of the characters. Dressed in Fiction traces the deployment of dress in key fictional texts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from Daniel Defoe's Roxana to George Eliot's Middlemarch and Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. Covering a range of topics, from the growth of the middle classes and the association of luxury with vice, to the reasons why wedding dresses rarely ever symbolize happiness, the book presents a unique study of the history of clothing through the most popular and influential literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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9781845201715

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Reviews

'A witty and complex book, Dressed in Fiction provides an illuminating discussion of those novels I am familiar with and makes me want to read those I've yet to encounter. The quality of the author's scholarship is outstanding.' Michael Carter, University of Sydney 'From the lost Arcadia symbolized in a Dandy's attire, to the gown as nemesis, Hughes presents an insightful analysis of nearly three centuries of literature, encompassing Richardson, Austen, Thackeray, Eliot, James, Wharton and more. Essential reading for historians of dress and the novel, Dressed in Fiction will also appeal to all with an interest in the culture and arts of this period.' Mary Schoeser, Senior Research Fellow, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design 'A fascinating analysis of what classic authors were telling readers when they described their heroes' or heroines' costumes - information that has often been lost over time.' Alison Lurie, The Guardian 'Illustrated throughout with interes

Author Information

Clair Hughes is an independent scholar.

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