Book contents
- Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era
- Cambridge Studies in Romanticism
- Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Minerva’s Writers and Reviewers
- Chapter 2 Godwin, Bage, Parsons, and Novels as They Are
- Chapter 3 Imitating Ann Radcliffe
- Chapter 4 Hannah More’s Cœlebs and the Novel of the Moment
- Chapter 5 Fiction as Fashion from Belinda to Miss Byron
- Chapter 6 Walter Scott’s Industrial Antiques
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Romanticism
Chapter 4 - Hannah More’s Cœlebs and the Novel of the Moment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2023
- Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era
- Cambridge Studies in Romanticism
- Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Minerva’s Writers and Reviewers
- Chapter 2 Godwin, Bage, Parsons, and Novels as They Are
- Chapter 3 Imitating Ann Radcliffe
- Chapter 4 Hannah More’s Cœlebs and the Novel of the Moment
- Chapter 5 Fiction as Fashion from Belinda to Miss Byron
- Chapter 6 Walter Scott’s Industrial Antiques
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Romanticism
Summary
This chapter uses the 1808 publication of Hannah More’s unlikely best-seller, the novel Coelebs in Search of a Wife to explore the ways that Romantic authors responded to heightened competition by writing novels that they identify as explicitly ephemeral – works intended to be read and relevant in their contemporary moment rather than valued in posterity. Within two years of Coelebs’ publication, other authors had produced at least six full-length response novels, which imitated, continued, parodied, or mocked the original work. The authors of these works embrace the idea of literary production as time-sensitive and transient: rather than fearing or fighting the phenomenon, they capitalize on the fast-paced literary culture of the time to emphasize their own works’ timeliness and contemporary relevance. If there are too many books, one must read and write faster; by the same token, however, the less time on the public stage each individual book demands, the more the field is opened for even greater numbers of novels.
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- Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era , pp. 110 - 140Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023