Acknolwedgments  ix

Introductions : A Genealogy of the Labor Novel  1

Part I. Realism Meets the Masses   21

1. How Deep Might Be the Romance: Representing Work and the working Class in Elizabeth Gaskells Mary Barton  29

2. A Modern Odyssey: Felix Holts Education for the Masses  63

Part II. Coming of Age in a World Economy   85

3. Seeing the Invisible: The Bildungsroman and the Narration of a New Regime of Accumulation  89

Part III. Itineraries of the Utopian  137

4. William Morris and a Peoples Art: Reimagining the Pleasures of Labor  141

5. Utopia, Use, and the Everyday: Oscar Wilde and a New Economy of Pleasure  181

Conclusion  205

Notes  215

Bibliography  251

Index  263

“[Lesjak] offers careful, convincing readings of how capitalist labor practices are always already structuring presentations of pleasure, thus providing a new, incisive view of how Victorian novels capture the realities of the working class . . . . Lesjak presents a genealogy that is not only exhaustive and assorted but also vital to current conversations that reconceptualize the genre and methodology of realism.”—S. Mahato, Choice

“[Lesjak] has without doubt developed sophisticated analytical instruments for making the labor/pleasure problematic visible in a wide range of Victorian fiction, and her book will certainly reinvigorate scholarly attention to this tremendously important topic.”—John Kucich, Victorian Studies

“One of Lesjak’s aces . . . is that there is no disappearance of labor at the end of the industrial novel. . . . One of her finest analyses is of Great Expectations. . . . Lesjak works hard to convince us that Marx and Morris are not romantics but prophets who have seen the future. I hope she is right.”—Leila S. May, Victorians Institute Journal

"[A] valuable re-evaluation of the importance of the 'labour novel' and makes some genuinely convincing and interesting new connections between traditional texts."—Gemma Gaskell, Modern Language Review

"While Lesjak's readings include some familiar elements, they also make new and important connections between narrative and global economics, generating a suggestive rethinking of the relation between social change and the formal and generic problems of Victorian realism."—Cathy Shuman, Novel

“Lesjak’s clear and sophisticated style makes the work accessible across a wide audience to produce a significant contribution to nineteenth-century literary analysis.”—Jessica Webb, Rocky Mountain Review

“[A]n ambitious rereading of the labour politics of nineteenth-century literature. . . . [R]efreshing, nuanced, and arresting.”—Gaskell Journal

“[Lesjak] offers careful, convincing readings of how capitalist labor practices are always already structuring presentations of pleasure, thus providing a new, incisive view of how Victorian novels capture the realities of the working class . . . . Lesjak presents a genealogy that is not only exhaustive and assorted but also vital to current conversations that reconceptualize the genre and methodology of realism.”—S. Mahato, Choice

“[Lesjak] has without doubt developed sophisticated analytical instruments for making the labor/pleasure problematic visible in a wide range of Victorian fiction, and her book will certainly reinvigorate scholarly attention to this tremendously important topic.”—John Kucich, Victorian Studies

“One of Lesjak’s aces . . . is that there is no disappearance of labor at the end of the industrial novel. . . . One of her finest analyses is of Great Expectations. . . . Lesjak works hard to convince us that Marx and Morris are not romantics but prophets who have seen the future. I hope she is right.”—Leila S. May, Victorians Institute Journal

"[A] valuable re-evaluation of the importance of the 'labour novel' and makes some genuinely convincing and interesting new connections between traditional texts."—Gemma Gaskell, Modern Language Review

"While Lesjak's readings include some familiar elements, they also make new and important connections between narrative and global economics, generating a suggestive rethinking of the relation between social change and the formal and generic problems of Victorian realism."—Cathy Shuman, Novel

“Lesjak’s clear and sophisticated style makes the work accessible across a wide audience to produce a significant contribution to nineteenth-century literary analysis.”—Jessica Webb, Rocky Mountain Review

“[A]n ambitious rereading of the labour politics of nineteenth-century literature. . . . [R]efreshing, nuanced, and arresting.”—Gaskell Journal

“Working Fictions is a groundbreaking book on Victorian literature and culture. Carolyn Lesjak reads nineteenth-century novels together with the best of social historical and Marxist criticism to reveal how the novel separated labor from pleasure and, in doing so, changed the very definition of both. Hers is an argument whose time has come, one that will enable a new generation of work to be done.”—Nancy Armstrong, author of Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel

“Working Fictions compellingly reconfigures the literary history of the nineteenth century by exploring the complex ways in which concepts of labor and pleasure informed the realist novel and Victorian aestheticism. This is a rich renewal of Frankfurt School concerns and a powerful contribution to contemporary literary studies.”—Amanda Anderson, author of The Way We Argue Now: A Study in the Cultures of Theory

Permission to Photocopy (coursepacks)

If you are requesting permission to photocopy material for classroom use, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at copyright.com;

If the Copyright Clearance Center cannot grant permission, you may request permission from our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).

Permission to Reprint

If you are requesting permission to reprint DUP material (journal or book selection) in another book or in any other format, contact our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).

Images/Art

Many images/art used in material copyrighted by Duke University Press are controlled, not by the Press, but by the owner of the image. Please check the credit line adjacent to the illustration, as well as the front and back matter of the book for a list of credits. You must obtain permission directly from the owner of the image. Occasionally, Duke University Press controls the rights to maps or other drawings. Please direct permission requests for these images to permissions@dukeupress.edu.
For book covers to accompany reviews, please contact the publicity department.

Subsidiary Rights/Foreign Translations

If you're interested in a Duke University Press book for subsidiary rights/translations, please contact permissions@dukeupress.edu. Include the book title/author, rights sought, and estimated print run.

Disability Requests

Instructions for requesting an electronic text on behalf of a student with disabilities are available here.

Rights & Permissions Contact Information

Email: permissions@dukeupress.edu

Email contact for coursepacks: asstpermissions@dukeupress.edu

Fax: 919-688-4574

Mail:
Duke University Press
Rights and Permissions
905 W. Main Street
Suite 18B
Durham, NC 27701

For all requests please include:

1. Author's name. If book has an editor that is different from the article author, include editor's name also.

2. Title of the journal article or book chapter and title of journal or title of book

3. Page numbers (if excerpting, provide specifics)

For coursepacks, please also note: The number of copies requested, the school and professor requesting

For reprints and subsidiary rights, please also note: Your volume title, publication date, publisher, print run, page count, rights sought