ABSTRACT Fiction Based on Fact: Subversions of Power and Propriety in Charles Reade’s Matter-of-Fact Romances Amanda L. Nydegger, Ph.D. Director: James E. Barcus, Ph.D. As Charles Reade began to write It Is Never Too Late to Mend, he developed a method of research and writing that he would use throughout the remainder of his career. In the Memoir, he declares: “The plan I propose to myself in writing stories will, I see, cost me undeniable labor. I propose never to guess where I can know” (198). This obsessive drive to discover and integrate facts into his fiction can be seen in all of his novels, but none so clearly as in the five he subtitled “a matter-of-fact romance.” Since the early 1900s, Reade has been completely excluded from the literary canon, and few critics have devoted any significant attention to his works. His two long matter-of-fact romances, Hard Cash and Never Too Late have received the bulk of critical study, but these novels are too often relegated to sensation, novel-with-a-purpose, or propagandist fiction without exploring the five matter-of-fact romances together as a whole. This dissertation provides an analysis of all five matter-of-fact romances, treating them as a new genre with its own set of criteria rather than trying to pigeonhole them into traditional genres such as realism or sensation fiction. Reade uses the matter-of-fact romance to accomplish two distinct objects. First, he creates a woven fabric of intertextuality which he uses to invite readers to engage closely with the text, and through a number of different techniques he encourages the reader to remain in direct contact with his narrative. Secondly, through the self- conscious creation of a new genre at the height of the debate between realism and idealism, Reade subverts conventional nineteenth-century concepts of genre and art. This subversion of genre extends to the content of his matter-of-fact romances where Reade further subverts Victorian concepts of power and propriety. An evaluation of subversions of power in the prison and the asylum, subversions of propriety with regard to women’s rights and roles, and psychological subversions of power form the basis of this study. Fiction Based on Fact: Subversions of Power and Propriety in Charles Reade’s Matter-of-Fact Romances by Amanda L. Nydegger, B.A. A Dissertation Approved by the Department of English ___________________________________ Dianna M. Vitanza, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ James E. Barcus, Ph.D., Chairperson ___________________________________ Dianna M. Vitanza, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Jeffrey S. Hamilton, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Joshua S. King, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Daniel Walden, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School August 2011 ___________________________________ J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2011 by Amanda L. Nydegger All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments.................................................................................................. vi Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Charles Reade’s Matter-of-Fact Romance .........................................................7 Reade’s Place in English Fiction .............................................................................8 Reade’s Collection and Defense of Fact ................................................................14 Reade and Realism .................................................................................................17 Fact is Not Truth: Critics’ Objections to Reade’s Use of Fact ..............................28 The Romance Component of Reade’s Matter-of-Fact Romance ...........................39 Implications of the New Genre: Intertextuality and Technique .............................48 Chapter 3: It Is Never Too Late to Mend: Subversions of Power in the Prisons...............................................................................................71 The Birmingham Gaol Inquest Report: Reade’s Matter-of-Fact Sources .......................................................................................................72 Matter-of-Fact Intertextuality: Following the Paper Trail(s) .................................85 The Romance of Never Too Late ...........................................................................92 Subversions of Genre, Subversions of Power: Mid-Victorian Prisons and the Matter-of-Fact Romance at Work in Never Too Late .................103 Chapter 4: Hard Cash: Subversions of Power in the Asylums ........................................129 The Rise of Psychiatry: Expert Professionals or Bumbling Mad-Doctors? .........................................................................130 Public Versus Private: The Mid-Victorian Asylum .............................................134 The Fletcher Experience and Print Sources: the Cold, Hard Asylum Facts ..................................................................140 iv The Argument Continued: Asylum Abuse and Intertextuality ............................171 Romance in the Asylums: Reade’s Purpose for Hard Cash ................................176 Subversions of Power in the Asylum: Alfred Hardie as Matter-of-Fact Hero .....................................................182 Chapter 5: Women and the Matter-of-Fact Romance: Subversions of Victorian Propriety in The Wandering Heir and Singleheart and Doubleface ...................191 Reade’s Matter-of-Fact Romance: A Basis in Fact .............................................193 Reade and Women: The Subversive Power of the Romance ..............................203 Intertextuality and the Woman Question: Reade in Conversation .......................211 Transforming Heroines: Tracing Reade’s Views on Women ..............................217 The Role of the Victorian Women and the Matter-of-Fact Romance .................236 Chapter 6: Jack of All Trades: Psychological Subversions of Power ..............................238 John Lott and Mademoiselle Djek: A Matter-of-Fact ..........................................241 Accounting for Djek’s Reputation in the News ...................................................251 Jack of All Trades, Intertextuality, and Romance ...............................................257 Man Versus Beast: Psychological Subversions of Power ....................................266 An Allegorical Reading of the Matter-of-Fact Romance ....................................275 Chapter 7: Conclusion......................................................................................................282 Works Cited .........................................................................................................288 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am extremely grateful to Dr. James Barcus for his tireless help through this process. His wisdom, support, and good humor have been indispensible to me. I am also thankful for his willingness to direct my independent study on the sensation novel that led me to discover Charles Reade in the first place and for his encouragement in pursuing Reade as the topic of my dissertation. I am also tremendously grateful to Dr. Joshua King for the time he freely gave in helping me think through my dissertation, engaging me with the material, and mentoring me along the way. It is due in large part to him that I have successfully reached the end of this road. He has my heartfelt gratitude. Finally, I am thankful to my other readers, Dr. Dianna Vitanza, Dr. Jeffrey Hamilton, and Dr. Walden for their willingness to serve on a committee that kept them furiously reading through the middle of the summer and for their helpful insights and suggestions. Their generosity cannot be overemphasized. In addition to my committee, I have to thank Dr. Laine Scales for her continual support. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to work with her at Baylor, and she has truly blessed me as a mentor and as a friend. I am also grateful to Dr. Fulton for his guidance throughout my graduate school experience and for the opportunity to work as his research assistant. I had no idea then that my experience culling newspapers for particular articles paralleled the practices of Reade so closely, nor that I would be collecting myriad newspaper articles for my own research one day. Looking back even further, I am particularly thankful for Dr. Patricia Magness, Dr. Ruth Cook, and Dr. Jack Knowles at Milligan College. They had a formative impact on my love for literature, and vi their continued interest in my academic career and loving e-mails have been a source of inspiration to me throughout my graduate career. Thanks also go to Baylor’s Osofast interlibrary loan staff—particularly Janet Jasek and Laura Sumrall for their tireless efforts to track down books, articles, microfilm, and newspapers, and their patience with me along the way. They are ridiculously amazing. I could not have finished my dissertation without their help and without the resources that the library offers. Finally, I cannot adequately express my gratitude to my family. My parents have been so loving, encouraging, and full of good advice, and my sister is perfection incarnate. There has never been, nor will there