This study investigates human curiosity and its depiction in eavesdropping scenes in nineteenth-century English and French novels. Ann Gaylin sheds light on the social and psychological effects of the nineteenth-century rise of information technology and accelerated flow of information, as manifested in the anxieties about (and delight in) displays of private life and its secrets. She analyzes eavesdropping in Austen, Balzac, Collins, and Proust. This innovative study is of interest to scholars of nineteenth-century English and European literature.
Author(s): Ann Gaylin
Series: Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 256
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Dedication......Page 9
Contents......Page 11
Acknowledgments......Page 12
PROLEGOMENA......Page 15
A THEORY OF EAVESDROPPING......Page 21
DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE: INDIVIDUAL READINGS......Page 32
CHAPTER 1 I’m all ears: Pride and Prejudice, or the story behind the story......Page 40
CHAPTER 2 Eavesdropping and the gentle art of Persuasion......Page 56
CHAPTER 3 Household words: Balzac’s and Dickens’s domestic spaces......Page 72
SETTING THE SCENE: A BRIEF HISTORY OF PRIVATE SPACE......Page 79
SECOND STORIES: BALZAC'S SCENES OF PRIVATE LIFE......Page 87
OF HOUSE AND HOME: DOMBEY AND SON......Page 114
CHAPTER 4 The madwoman outside the attic: Eavesdropping and narrative agency in The Woman in White......Page 127
CHAPTER 5 La double entente: eavesdropping and identity in A la recherche du temps perdu......Page 153
Conclusion: covert listeners and secret agents......Page 181
INTRODUCTION......Page 193
1 I’M ALL EARS: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE......Page 201
2 EAVESDROPPING AND THE GENTLE ART OF PERSUASION......Page 205
3 HOUSEHOLD WORDS: BALZAC’S AND DICKENS’S DOMESTIC SPACES......Page 211
4 THE MADWOMAN OUTSIDE THE ATTIC......Page 221
5 LA DOUBLE ENTENTE......Page 227
CONCLUSION: COVERT LISTENERS AND SECRET AGENTS......Page 233
Select bibliography......Page 236
Index......Page 251
