MARKED MEN: SPORT AND MASCULINITY IN VICTORIAN POPULAR CULTURE, 1866-1904 by Shannon Rose Smith A thesis submitted to the Department of English Language and Literature In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (July 2012) Copyright ©Shannon Rose Smith, 2012 Abstract In Marked Men: Sport and Masculinity in Victorian Popular Culture, 1866-1904 I examine the representation of the figure of the Victorian sportsman in different areas of nineteenth-century popular culture – newspapers, spectacular melodrama, and series detective fiction – and how these depictions register diverse incarnations of this figure, demonstrating a discomfort with, and anxiety about, the way in which the sporting experience after the Industrial Revolution influenced gender ideology, specifically that related to ideas of manliness. Far from simply celebrating the modern experience of sport as one that works to produce manly men, coverage in the Victorian press of sporting events such as the 1869 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, spectacular melodramas by Dion Boucicault, and series detective fiction by Arthur Conan Doyle and Arthur Morrison, all recognize that the relationship between men and modern sport is a complex, if fraught one; it produces men who are “marked” in a variety of ways by their sporting experience. This recognition is at the heart of our own understandings of this relationship in the twenty-first century. ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my lasting gratitude to Maggie Berg and Mary Louise Adams, under whose supervision I conducted the research for my study; both have had a marked impact on the kind of scholar I have become and both have taught me many lessons about the challenges and joys of scholarship. I would also like to thank Shelley King for her heartening enthusiasm for, and continuous support of, my project; I will always be indebted to her for introducing me to Dion Boucicault and for facilitating my introduction to the field of the digital humanities. Cathy Harland, Sandra Den Otter, and Joan Schwartz provided insightful and constructive feedback on my project during the oral defence and Clare Horrocks, at Liverpool John Moores University, was a rigorous, helpful, and generous external examiner. Other members of the Department of English Language and Literature at Queen’s University also aided in my scholarly development throughout this process and I would like to thank them for their support, particularly John Pierce, Elizabeth Hanson, Laura Murray, and Kathy Goodfriend. The academic community at the Bader International Study Centre, Herstmonceux Castle, Queen’s University proved a nurturing professional environment in which to complete the final stages of this project. Executive Directors David Bevan and Bruce Stanley were accommodating, patient, and unfailingly kind; colleagues in both the UK and Canada were generous with both encouragement and feedback. I am especially grateful for the support and friendship of Christian Lloyd, Daphne Lawson, Ruth Cereceda, Shara Rambarran, Popi Kyriakopoulou, David Baguley, John Keefe, Claire iii Anderson, Mary Beth Kitzel, Brian Hunter, Johanna Amos, Tom Gallini, Chantal Christine Valkenborg, and Jenny Corlett. The hard work of the staff at the following libraries facilitated my tracking down numerous and diverse sources: Stauffer Library, Queen’s University; the library at the Bader International Study Centre, Herstmonceux Castle; the University of Sussex Library; the Thomas Keller Library, the River and Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames; the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; the University Library, University of Cambridge; the British Library Newspaper Reading Room at Colindale; and the St. Pancras Reading Rooms, the British Library. This project was in part funded by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship and a fellowship from the London Goodenough Association of Canada. I could not have completed this project without the support of my family and friends. My mother, Aniela Smith, has always encouraged my love of reading and writing and cheered all my scholarly endeavours; during this, the latest and the biggest, she was always an inspiration. Julia McArthur and Justin Connidis were quietly kind and generous in countless ways, contributing both emotional and practical support at key moments. Derrick and Marion Lowe, Anne and John Rees, and Ruth Barker have all cheered me on with faith and good humour; I knew I could always count on them for a rousing chorus of “you can do it!” any time I was discouraged. The company of Gwynn, Blythe, and Oliver Dujardin was always a respite from the challenges of research and writing; they all played a significant and vital part in my personal and professional growth during this time. Rachel Barreca was always a sympathetic friend whose good humour helped me keep mine; Liz Hubbell’s friendship, hospitality, and baked goods iv continually pushed the word count upwards; Meg Scott, founding member of ‘The Future Doctors Club,’ provided a much needed link with home and the familiar; Isolda Penney and Marcos Miranda reminded me of the strength of friendships made through rowing; and Dana Wight, Clare Clarke, Sandy Waddell, and Benjamin Tollestrup proved that geographical distance need not be a hinderance to shared interests and endeavours. Through this lengthy and challenging process, my husband, Peter Lowe was a constant source of strength. His love and encouragement carried me through the difficult patches and made the moments of joy only that much richer. It is to him that I dedicate this project, with love. v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii Preface ................................................................................................................................ xi Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 The Development of Sport in the Nineteenth Century: A Short History ...................... 15 Nineteenth-Century Manliness ...................................................................................... 20 Chapter 2 Situating the Sportsman: A Review of Scholarly Literature ............................ 33 The Value of Popular Culture Artifacts in Determining the Meaning of the Sportsman ....................................................................................................................................... 37 Literary Critical Understandings of Sport ..................................................................... 43 Literary Representations of the Sportsman ................................................................... 47 Manliness and Muscular Christianity ............................................................................ 51 The Cultural History of Nineteenth-Century Masculinity ............................................ 54 Chapter 3 The Healthy, Heroic Sportsman, the 1869 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, and the Victorian Press ............................................................................................................ 56 “A seed sown”: F. C. Skey and the Boat Race Controversy ......................................... 65 Classical and English Heroes ........................................................................................ 69 Individual Examples of Heroic, Healthy Sportsmen ..................................................... 75 Work, Family, and the Sportsman ................................................................................. 85 The Boat Race in the English Landscape ...................................................................... 95 vi Chapter 4 The Urban Sportsman: Victorian Spectacular Melodrama and the Representation of Modern Sport Culture ........................................................................ 108 Mediating Modernity: The Cultural Work of Melodrama .......................................... 114 Dion Boucicault, Not Just Your Stage Irishman ......................................................... 118 Flying Scud; or a Four-Legged Fortune (1866) .......................................................... 122 Formosa, the Most Beautiful; or The Railroad to Ruin (1869) ................................... 148 Chapter 5 The Pastoral Sportsman: Series Detective Fiction and the Sacred Space of Athletics .......................................................................................................................... 175 Solving the Crime: The Cultural Work of the Detective Story ................................... 177 The Sporting Pastoral .................................................................................................. 181 Arthur Morrison’s “The Loss of Sammy Crockett” .................................................... 183 Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Three Students” ................................. 211 Chapter 6 The Speedy Sportsman: Series Detective Fiction and the Mystery of Sporting Technology ..................................................................................................................... 229 Men on Bikes .............................................................................................................