Reform Acts : Chartism, Social Agency, and the Victorian Novel, 1832-1867.

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Social Agency: The Franchise, Class Discourse, and National Narratives -- PART 1: MAKING PHYSICAL FORCE MORAL: THE DILEMMA OF CHARTISM, 1838-1842 -- 2 Social Agency in the Chartist and Parliamentary Press -- 3 Egalitarian Chivalry and Popular Agency in Wat Tyler -- 4 Unconsummated Marriage and the "Uncommitted" Gunpowder Plot in Guy Fawkes -- 5 Class Alliance and Self-Culture in Barnaby Rudge -- PART 2: "THE LAND! THE LAND! THE LAND!": LAND OWNERSHIP AS POLITICAL REFORM, 1842-1848 -- 6 Agricultural Reform, Young England's Allotments, and the Chartist Land Plan -- 7 The Landed Estate, Finely Graded Hierarchy, and the Member of Parliament in Coningsby and Sybil -- 8 Agricultural Improvement and the Squirearchy in Hillingdon Hall -- 9 The Land Plan, Class Dichotomy, and Working-Class Agency in Sunshine and Shadow -- PART 3: THE SOCIAL TURN: FROM CHARTISM TO COOPERATION AND TRADE UNIONISM, 1848-1855 -- 10 Christian Socialism and Cooperative Association -- 11 Clergy and Working-Class Cooperation in Yeast and Alton Locke -- 12 Reforming Trade Unionism in Mary Barton and North and South -- Coda: Rethinking Reform in the Era of the Second Reform Act, 1860-1867 -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y.

By including novels written from a range of political perspectives, Vanden Bossche discovers patterns in Victorian thinking that are easily recognized in today's assumptions about social hierarchy.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.