Sensibility and Economics in the Novel

Gillian Skinner is Lecturer in English at LSU College of Higher Education in Southampton.

'Skinner's substantial book boldly takes on the common assumption that sentimental novels avoid the economic and political. We need not read those concerns into the novels, insists Skinner; they are already there to be read. Many examples are offered, but the most impressive is the reading of A Sentimental Journey. First-rate analyses of later novels pinpoint the particular features of sensibility that come to characterize commerce.' - Clifford Siskin, Studies in English Literature 'Gillian Skinner's Sensibility and Economics in the Novel makes an important and compelling contribution to the new economic criticism that has gained so much interest in our field in the last few years. [...] What distinguishes Skinner most prominently from many other treatments of economics and the novel is her attention to gendered authorship. Thus, instead of making claims about women writers with scant reference to their male counterparts or claims about the novel with scant attention to gender or women, Skinner shows how in several different ways the perspective of women writers can interestingly differ from that of their male contemporaries. In doing so, she makes an important contribution to the ongoing conversation about gender, fiction, and economics.' - Laura J. Rosenthal, Florida State University

• Acknowledgements Introduction Economic Sense and Sensibility in David Simple , Tom Jones and The Countess of Dellwyn Sexual Innocence and Economic Experience: Amelia and Ophelia 'Godlike Benefactors': Patriarchal Patterns in Lady Julia Mandeville , The Vicar of Wakefield and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker 'Above Economy': The History of Lady Barton, The Man of Feeling and A Sentimental Journey 'The First Soft System': Commerce, Sensibility and Femininity in Barham Downs and Anna 'The Mild Lustre of Modest Independence': Economies of Obligation in Novels of the 1790s Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index