Pregnancy and the Novel is a study of covert representations of pregnancy and birth in canonical eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novels. The research draws on medical texts to illuminate the ways that novelists simultaneously hide and reveal problematic pregnancies and births. Grounded in narrative theory and historicism, it reveals a reciprocal influence between literature and science through the novels of Samuel Richardson, the Brontës, George Eliot, Dickens and Hardy. This project is an act of literary detective work that will uncover what can easily be missed by twenty-first century readers, bringing it into light by reconstructing historical knowledge of reproductive medicine.
This is an open access book.
| ISBN: | 9781137276452 |
| Publication date: | 23rd May 2025 |
| Author: | Tracy Brain |
| Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan an imprint of Bath Spa University |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Genres: |
Comparative literature Cultural studies Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800 Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 |