To understand hatred and civility in today's world, argues Christopher Lane, we should start with Victorian fiction. Although the word "Victorian" generally brings to mind images of prudish sexuality and well-heeled snobbery, it has above all become synonymous with self-sacrifice, earnest devotion, and moral rectitude. Yet this idealized version of Victorian England is surprisingly scarce in the period's literature--and its journalism, sermons, poems, and plays--where villains, hypocrites, murderers, and cheats of all types abound.
Columbia University Press
— P. W. Stine
Lane's study succeeds in prompting readers to confront a deep, simple, and problematic truth: that it is no small feat to live successfully among people.
An impressive successor... [that] mark[s] him out...as the most renowned psychoanalytic critic in his generation of Victorianists.
Lane's vision of the period as one rife with antisocial sentiment is provocative and convincing, and amply demonstrated through the breadth of his analysis and the strength of his readings.
A valuable and engaging book.
Lane achieves a remarkable recasting of the Victorian age, revealing a pervasive Victorian 'willingness to let hatred and civility collide in Jekyll-and-Hyde fashion.' His range of reference is impressive.... [This book] is a major contribution to Victorian studies.
[Lane] convincingly shows that the aesthetic and moral premises of Victorian literature are powerfully undermined by a constantly resurfacing belief that hatred and malice are more potent ontological imperatives in human nature than are love and sympathy."
Lane's excellent book [provides] fascinating close readings while always keeping the bigger picture--the relationship between the individual and society--in full view.
Will be welcome in all collections of Victorian literature...Highly recommended.
— Ilana M. Blumberg
— John Plotz
— Tanya Agathocleous
— Stephanie Cross
— Nicola Bradbury
Introduction: Victorian Hatred, a Social Evil and a Social GoodBulwer's Misanthropes and the Limits of Victorian SympathyDickensian MalefactorsCharlotte Brontâ on the Pleasure of HatingGeorge Eliot and EnmityLife Envy in Robert Browning's PoetryEpilogue: Joseph Conrad and the Illusion of Solidarity
Columbia University Press
Anonymous
Posted April 28, 2006
I found this book quite by chance, looking for others on hatred, and am really glad I did. Its a fascinating look at the Victorian age, with wonderful accounts of great writers like Dickens and a serious investigation of their thoughts on civility and hatred. But its also very witty, entertaining, and readable. A real breath of fresh air. Five stars.
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Overview
To understand hatred and civility in today's world, argues Christopher Lane, we should start with Victorian fiction. Although the word "Victorian" generally brings to mind images of prudish sexuality and well-heeled snobbery, it has above all become synonymous with self-sacrifice, earnest devotion, and moral rectitude. Yet this idealized version of Victorian England is surprisingly scarce in the period's literature--and its journalism, sermons, poems, and plays--where villains, ...