Abstract
This paper will explore how and why the deformed male aristocrat became a recognizable figure in the era, making its way into several hugely popular (and today neglected) nineteenth-century novels. From the morbid Earl of St Germains (in Anne Marsh’s bestselling 1834 novella “The Deformed”) to the “smallest, saddest specimen of infantile deformity”, the Earl of Cairnforth (in Dinah Craik’s 1866 A Noble Life); from the clubfooted Sir Patrick Lundie (in Collins’ 1870 Man and Wife) to the heroic hunchback Lord Lashmar (of Braddon’s 1886 One Thing Needful), and the crippled, oversexed aesthete Sir Richard Calmady (in Lucas Malet’s 1901 eponymous novel), literary depictions of noble deformity, I argue, both enhance our understanding of Victorian notions of degeneration, heredity, masculinity and creativity, and challenge modern-day views about the role of deformed bodies in nineteenth-century literature and culture.
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Unpublished - 2019 |
Event | The Body and the Page in Victorian Culture : An International Conference - University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada Duration: 26 Jul 2018 → 28 Jul 2018 https://hcmc.uvic.ca/bodyandpage/index.php |
Conference
Conference | The Body and the Page in Victorian Culture |
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Country/Territory | Canada |
City | Victoria |
Period | 26/07/18 → 28/07/18 |
Internet address |