Abstract
Sensation novelists famously pilfered newspapers for scandalous and evocative plotlines, crafting tales of thrilling exploits that posed questions about mid-Victorian society. These novels are activist in nature because they present individuals possessing secret information about social institutions and ask whether those same individuals have the agency to act upon this information. The secret knowledge that propels the plots of Charles Reade’s It Is Never Too Late to Mend: A Matter-of-Fact Romance (1856) and Felicia Skene’s Hidden Depths (1866) conceals corruption, empowering those who hold such information to either perpetuate the corruption or contribute to transparency between individuals and within institutions. This power demonstrates the potential for social activism inherent in sensation novels.
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Andrews, E. (2016). Sensation Fiction as Social Activism: Charles Reade’s It Is Never Too Late to Mend and Felicia Skene’s Hidden Depths . In: Downes, D., Ferguson, T. (eds) Victorian Fiction Beyond the Canon. Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51823-1_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51823-1_6
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-51822-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-51823-1
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