Pondering the "Self": Novels in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Author: Huang Mei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-05-01
Features: The author comprehensively examines 18th-century British novels in this new research topic and fully demonstrates that contemporary literary works not only reflect the spirit of the times but also continuously participate in the construction of values (whether moral or aesthetic). The author presents the narrative entirely based on their own reading experience, with detailed and insightful textual readings and analyses following each general overview. What is particularly noteworthy is that the author shows her concern for contemporary China throughout her writing, skillfully integrating this concern naturally into the entire book, leaving readers with a sense of "salting water, dissolving into nothingness." This book provides a comprehensive review of major novelists, key works, stylistic trends, and contributions of British and Western fiction history from the initial stage of the rise of modern British novels in the 17th century to the first flourishing of 18th-century British novels over more than a hundred years. It includes and comments on important critical opinions from Western, especially Anglo-American, scholars on these authors and works from various perspectives, upon which the author presents her own views. In the specific reviews, the author demonstrates outstanding skills in interpreting texts and analyzing characters, revealing all the multi-layered meanings of the texts and serving as a classic appreciation.