University of Huddersfield Repository Halliwell, David ‘Nothing against good morals and correct taste’: Subversion, containment and the masculine boundaries of Victorian sensation fiction. Original Citation Halliwell, David (2014) ‘Nothing against good morals and correct taste’: Subversion, containment and the masculine boundaries of Victorian sensation fiction. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/23700/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. 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David Halliwell A Thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Huddersfield March 2014 Abstract The thesis explores the boundaries of sensation fiction with particular emphasis on masculine discourse as evidenced in these and their performance of ideological work. In its contemporary emphasis on the 1860s the study focuses on sensation novels in their initial published form as serials in family magazines and masculine discourse in paratexts surrounding instalments. Although masculinity is only one perspective in magazines there is sufficient cumulative evidence of a strong masculinist orientation in editorial selection of paratexts which I argue may affect the reading of instalments of sensation fiction. Critical reviews of these novels, the cultural anxieties and ideological fears they provoked are discussed in the following chapter. These critical reviews were a persistent feature of the periodical press and this is worth mentioning because they form a powerful, reactionary and persuasive viewpoint in the masculine boundaries of sensation fiction. Turning to modern criticism the thesis examines the neglect and omission of Edmund Yates, a sensation author who was very much part of the mid-nineteenth century literary scene. Through its emphasis on masculinities the thesis attempts to offer critical insights into the vexed and contentious question of how far sensation fiction is subversive and how far it is successfully and deliberately contained. In its assessment of Edmund Yates the study attempts to show that narrative structures which seem to support the containment of subversive trends in sensation fiction can be used to support dissident readings of a modern canon of sensation. 2 Acknowledgements Completion of this thesis is in no small way due to the insight and fortitude of my supervisory team: Dr Merrick Burrow and Dr Cath Ellis to whom I am indebted. My thanks also to my family and my friends Stephen and Christine for support and encouragement. University staff in all departments have always been generous with their support. To Nancy and Laura i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of any patents, designs, trademarks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the “Intellectual Property Rights”) and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions. 3 Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... 3 Abbreviations used in this thesis .......................................................................................................... 6 List of Nineteenth Century Periodicals and abbreviations to their full titles as used in this study .............. 6 Abbreviations to titles of Edmund Yates’s novels .............................................................................. 7 Chapter One Literature review and introduction .................................................................................... 8 Beginnings .................................................................................................................................... 8 Consolidation .............................................................................................................................. 12 Burgeoning Criticism ................................................................................................................... 15 Other Influential Literature ........................................................................................................... 17 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 18 Chapter Two The serialisation of sensation fiction ............................................................................. 25 Serial Fiction ............................................................................................................................... 27 Writing serials ............................................................................................................................. 28 Reading serials ............................................................................................................................ 30 Periodicals and text ...................................................................................................................... 32 Paratexts ..................................................................................................................................... 35 Gender ....................................................................................................................................... 38 Masculinities ............................................................................................................................... 51 Analysing Paratexts ...................................................................................................................... 51 Articles ....................................................................................................................................... 53 Public Spaces .............................................................................................................................. 55 Homosociality, masculinity and the military .................................................................................... 69 Homosociality and Leisure ............................................................................................................ 76 Chapter Three Critics, culture and reading ...................................................................................... 86 Reviewers and sensation fiction ..................................................................................................... 87 Critical approval .......................................................................................................................... 88 Anti-sensation reviews, cultural and class anxiety ............................................................................ 92 Reading for pleasure or politics? .................................................................................................... 96 Chapter Four Edmund Yates ....................................................................................................... 118 Recovering writers ..................................................................................................................... 118 Oliphant and Yates ..................................................................................................................... 123 Yates and trespass ...................................................................................................................... 129 Yates’s Novels .......................................................................................................................... 133 4 Chapter Five