About the Author:
Peter Gay won the National Book Award for the first volume of his two-volume study, The Enlightenment. His most recent book is Schnitzler's Century.
From Library Journal:
In this little book, historian and cultural critic Gay (Schnitzler's Century) turns his gaze to the realist novels of Dickens, Flaubert, and Thomas Mann. Very often, he argues, readers interpret realist novels as mirrors that can be held up to their societies to offer an accurate portrayal of the historical details of that social world. On this reading, Dickens's portraits of orphanages in industrial London or Flaubert's depictions of the vagaries of the new bourgeoisie in 19th-century France become faithful descriptions of the society at hand. Not so, Gay contends. In close readings of Bleak House, Madame Bovary, and Buddenbrooks, Gay demonstrates that realist novels cannot be taken as accurate guides to the historical details of their times. Quite simply, he says, the powerful insights of the novels arise from a combination of the authors' psychological insights and their historical contexts. For example, Dickens's portrait of the bureaucratic boondoggles of the Chancery Court, Gay contends, does not accurately depict the court of 1853, as earlier reform bills had introduced significant changes in how it conducted itself. Despite the historical inaccuracies these novels pass along, their significance lies in the subversive "reprisals" they make to their societies. Unfortunately, Gay is no literary critic; his readings are not particularly lively, and his insights are neither new nor startling. His readings often tend toward reductionism (Buddenbrooks as a novel about Mann's homosexual tendencies), and his argument that these novels offer subversive readings of their societies is simplistic, providing no incisive wisdom about the texts. More thoughtful essays on Bleak House and Madame Bovary, for example, can be found in Vladimir Nabokov's Lectures on Literature. Not recommended.
- Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA
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