Strange Gods - Love and Idolatry in the Victorian Novel

Anxiety about adoring humans more than God frequently overshadows and sometimes derails the progress of romance in Victorian novels. By probing this anxiety and its narrative effects, Strange Gods uncovers how a central Protestant belief exerts its influence over stories about love and marriage.

List of contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: "Idolatry of the Heart"
Chapter 2 Breaking the Idol of the Marriage Plot in Yeast and Villette
Chapter 3 Idolatrous Reading in The Doctor’s Wife
Chapter 4 Following the Sun God in Middlemarch
Chapter 5 Worshipping Beauty in The Picture of Dorian Gray
Chapter 6 New Goddesses: Carving Images in The Well-Beloved

About the author

Timothy L. Carens is Professor of English at the College of Charleston where he teaches classes on nineteenth-century literature and culture. He is author of Outlandish English Subjects in the Victorian Domestic Novel and his essays have appeared in Dickens Studies Annual, Studies in English Literature, College English, Victorian Literature and Culture, and Nineteenth-Century Literature.

Summary

Anxiety about adoring humans more than God frequently overshadows and sometimes derails the progress of romance in Victorian novels. By probing this anxiety and its narrative effects, Strange Gods uncovers how a central Protestant belief exerts its influence over stories about love and marriage.

Product details

• Authors: Timothy L. Carens, Carens Timothy L.
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.05.2023
• EAN: 9780367525125
• ISBN: 978-0-367-52512-5
• No. of pages: 200
• Series: Among the Victorians and Modernists
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; RELIGION / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 19th Century, c 1800 to c 1900, Religion: general, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, 1837–1901 (Victorian period)