Research Catalog

Title

Inheritance in nineteeth-century French culture : wealth, knowledge and the family / Andrew J. Counter.

Author

Counter, Andrew J.

Publication

London : Legenda, 2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

205 p.; 26 cm.

Summary

• The transmission of wealth between generations was not only a narrative commonplace in nineteenth-century France, but also a topic of considerable cultural anxiety and intense political debate. In this study, Andrew J. Counter draws on a wealth of previously unexplored material to show how the theme of inheritance in literature and beyond acquired ethical, historical and ideological connotations, and was vital to nineteenth-century French conceptions of the family and of the legacy of the Revolution. Weaving together fiction, drama, legal texts, historiographical thought and political writing, Inheritance in Nineteenth-Century French Culture teases out a complex leitmotiv that gives us a new understanding of nineteenth-century France's sense of its own place in history. It also proposes innovative readings of writers as familiar as Honore de Balzac, George Sand, Guy de Maupassant and Emile Zola, while drawing attention to a range of neglected authors and works.
• Legenda is a joint imprint of the Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing, Titles range from medieval texts to contemporary cinema and form a widely comparative view of the modern humanities. --Book Jacket.

Subject

• 1800-1899
• French literature > 19th century > History and criticism
• Inheritance and succession in literature
• Inheritance and succession > France > History > 19th century

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History

Note

• Originally presented as: Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Cambridge, 2008.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [191]-202) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The politics of inheritance in nineteenth-century France -- All about my uncle : narratives of inheritance in nineteenth-century France -- The power of the will in Balzac's Ursule Mirouët -- Being of sound mind : the forbidden knowledge of Maupassant's subversive testaments -- Heirs of darkness : women's writing on inheritance in nineteenth-century France -- Donner et retenir ne vaut : gift and discourse in Zola's La Terre.

ISBN

• 1906540756
• 9781906540753

OCLC

• 470693049
• SCSB-11783354

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library