The Most Dreadful Visitation: Male Madness in Victorian FictionVictorian literature is rife with scenes of madness, with mental disorder functioning as everything from a simple plot device to a commentary on the foundations of Victorian society. But while madness in Victorian fiction has been much studied, most scholarship has focused on the portrayal of madness in women; male mental disorder in the period has suffered comparative neglect. Valerie Pedlar corrects this imbalance in The Most Dreadful Visitation. This extraordinary study explores a wide range of Victorian writings to consider the relationship between the portrayal of mental illness in literary works and the portrayal of similar disorders in the writings of doctors and psychologists. Pedlar presents in-depth studies of Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, Tennyson's Maud, Wilkie Collins's Basil, and Trollope's He Knew He Was Right, considering each work in the context of Victorian understandings—and fears—of mental degeneracy. |
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The Most Dreadful Visitation: Male Madness in Victorian Fiction Valerie Pedlar No preview available - 2006 |
The Most Dreadful Visitation: Male Madness in Victorian Fiction Valerie Pedlar No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
Alfred Alfred's appearance asylum Barnaby Rudge Barnaby's BASIL AND MAUD behaviour Braddon brain fever breakdown chapter character Charles Reade Collins concept Conolly David Ferrier DEGENERACY IN DRACULA described Dickens discussed doctor DREADFUL VISITATION emphasises face fact Fatal Three father fears Female Malady feminine fiction Hard Cash Harker Helsing Household Words husband ideas IDIOCY AND BARNABY idiot insanity INSURRECTION AND IMAGINATION jealousy John Conolly Lady Audley's Secret London lunatic madhouse MADNESS AND DEGENERACY MADNESS AND MARRIAGE manliness Mannion marriage Mary Braddon masculinity mental Merivale mind monomania moral moral treatment narrative narrator nineteenth century Oxford particular patient phrenology physical psychological Reade's recognised relationship Renfield represented responsibility Roy Porter sane sanity scene seems sensation SENSATIONALISM AND HARD Seward sexual social society St John Stoker suggestion THWARTED LOVERS tion treatment Trevelyan Trollope University Press Valentine Vox vampire Van Helsing Victorian Wilkie Collins woman women writing WRONGFUL CONFINEMENT ZOOPHAGOUS ZOOPHAGOUS MANIAC