Realism, Representation, and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Literature

This book examines the representation of a variety of arts--primarily painting, theater, and music--within the work of major nineteenth-century novelists. It charts a historical progression, from Romantic poetry, through mid-century Realism, to Aestheticism, showing how authors used references to other forms of art to illuminate their own aesthetic ideals. Examining the aesthetic theory and cultural practice of different arts, Alison Byerly demonstrates the importance of artistic representation to the development of Victorian Realism.

This book confronts a significant paradox in the development of literary realism: the very novels that present themselves as purveyors and celebrants of direct, ordinary human experience also manifest an obsession with art that threatens to sabotage their Realist claims. Unlike previous studies of the role of visual art, or music, or theatre in Victorian literature, Realism, Representation, and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Literature examines the juxtaposition of all of these arts in the works of Charlotte Brontë, William Thackeray, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and others. Alison Byerly combines close textual analysis with discussion of relevant ancillary topics to illuminate the place of different arts within nineteenth-century British culture. Her book, which also contains sixteen illustrations, represents an effort to bridge the growing gap between aesthetics and cultural studies.

Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. The picturesque aesthetic and the natural art of song; 2. Masterpiece theatres: art as spectacle in William Thackeray and Charlotte Brontë; 3. George Eliot's hierarchy of representation; 4. Art works: Thomas Hardy and the labor of creation; Coda: aestheticism: the erasure of the real; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

This book examines the representation of painting, theatre, and music within the work of major nineteenth-century novelists. Examining the aesthetic theory and cultural practice of different arts, Alison Byerly demonstrates the importance of artistic representation to the development of Victorian Realism.