In “Reading the Women’s Sentimental Novel: A Romance,” Tabitha Sparks considers a large and diffuse body of mass-market fiction written by and for Victorian women. She argues that the author-focused interpretive approach that underwrites the study of the canon neglects the attraction of formula fiction, and even the robust recovery efforts of Victorian scholars have largely avoided a taxonomic reading of these novels. In an effort to uncover their objectives and appeal, Sparks reads periodical reviews and discussions of the professional woman writer to better understand the commercial – not artistic – standards assigned to the prosaic “lady’s novel.” She examines a subset of novels by Annie S. Swan, Sarah Doudney, Emily Jolly, and Adeline Sergeant to uncover a repeated subplot in which these novels’ heroines become best-selling authors. The complete elision of the content of their best-sellers reveals and confirms the sentimental novel’s self-conscious withdrawal from the literary caste wars of the day.
---
The sentimental heroine who becomes a novelist, usually inspired by innate sensitivity and financial need and often against parental approval, is a familiar, if not quite stock, character. Because she fits into a sentimental formula, her career trajectory follows a predictable course that starts with an inchoate aspiration, moves to early success, public acclaim, and then – as these novels end in marriage – disappears entirely. The formula also completely omits what the heroine writes, beyond vague references to fiction or “a novel.”(13-14)
Here's the abstract:
---
---