The Historical Novel and the Nation State, 1814-1900

Abstract

This is a work of literary history on the historical novel in nineteenth-century Britain, France, America, and Canada, combining history and criticism, using materials from politics, bibliography, and literature. Following upon earlier romance, gothic, national, and historical novels, Walter Scott’s combination of history and romance in Waverley, or ‘Tis Sixty Years Since (1814) offered a unique, effective, and influential means of describing and directing the social transformation and modernization of nation states. Honoré de Balzac, James Fenimore Cooper, and Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé built upon the success of Scott’s Waverley novels (1814-31) by adapting formal and thematic resources to local circumstances, making the historical novel transnational in scope and national in application. Case studies of Scott’s Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818); Balzac’s Père Goriot (1835); Cooper’s Pathfinder, or the Inland Sea (1840); and Aubert de Gaspé’s Anciens Canadiens (1863) situate, describe, and trace the impact of such works: first, literary and print history situates initial production; second, narrative analysis describes the representation of modern identity and group formation; third, downmarket dissemination and cultural adaptation within and between nation states throughout the nineteenth century traces the extended impact on publishing, reading, and culture. Consideration of the historical novel as a historical, political, and popular form used to respond and contribute to conditions of modernity provides the information and analysis necessary for revaluation of the role and significance of such works in the development of the modern nation state.