Book contents
- Plagiarizing the Victorian Novel
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
- Plagiarizing the Victorian Novel
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- Chapter One The Pickwick Phenomenon
- Chapter Two Charles Dickens and the Pseudo-Dickens Industry
- Chapter Three Parody; or, The Art of Writing Edward Bulwer Lytton
- Chapter Four Thackeray versus Bulwer versus Bulwer: Parody and Appropriation
- Chapter Five Being George Eliot: Imitation, Imposture, and Identity
- Postscript, Posthumous Papers, Aftertexts
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Chapter Four - Thackeray versus Bulwer versus Bulwer: Parody and Appropriation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2019
- Plagiarizing the Victorian Novel
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
- Plagiarizing the Victorian Novel
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- Chapter One The Pickwick Phenomenon
- Chapter Two Charles Dickens and the Pseudo-Dickens Industry
- Chapter Three Parody; or, The Art of Writing Edward Bulwer Lytton
- Chapter Four Thackeray versus Bulwer versus Bulwer: Parody and Appropriation
- Chapter Five Being George Eliot: Imitation, Imposture, and Identity
- Postscript, Posthumous Papers, Aftertexts
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Summary
Parody degrades, but it also generates. As Edward Bulwer discovered, parodic aftertexts can guide their sources, to correct stylistic foibles or to seek new narrative modes. In the words of the 1885 Saturday Review, parody can serve as “a chastener and instructor.” Christopher Stone remarks, “Parody of the dead is static … you will not help that author to see himself as the world sees him; and this you must do if you are going to cure him of his faults.” Further, parody can be generative for the parodist as well as the parodee. Many writers launch their careers by writing, at first, like someone else.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Plagiarizing the Victorian NovelImitation, Parody, Aftertext, pp. 114 - 136Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019