Object Lessons: The Novel as a Theory of Reference

208 Pages·2016·0.598 MB·English

by  Jami Bartlett

Object Lessons

Object Lessons
Th e Novel as a Th eory of Reference
jami bartlett
Th e University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
(cid:2)
jami bartlett is Th e University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
associate professor of Th e University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
English at the University © 2016 by Th e University of Chicago
of California, Irvine. All rights reserved. Published 2016.
Printed in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-1 3: 978- 0- 226- 36965-5 (cloth)
isbn-1 3: 978- 0- 226- 36979-2 (e- book)
doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226369792.001.0001
An earlier version of chapter 1 fi rst appeared as
“Meredith & Ends” in ELH 76, no. 3 (2009): 547–76.
© 2009 Th e Johns Hopkins University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bartlett, Jami, author.
Title: Object lessons : the novel as a theory of reference /
Jami Bartlett.
Description: Chicago ; London : Th e University of
Chicago Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifi ers: lccn 2015040307 | isbn 9780226369655
(cloth : alk. paper) | isbn 9780226369792 (e-book)
Subjects: lcsh: English fi ction—History and c riticism. |
Meredith, George, 1828–1909—Criticism and
interpretation. | Th ackeray, William Makepeace,
1811–1863—Criticism and interpretation. | Gaskell,
Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810–1865—Criticism and
interpretation. | Murdoch, Iris—Criticism and
interpretation.
Classifi cation: lcc pr821 .b37 2016 | ddc 823.009–dc23
lc record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015040307
Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from
the Bevington Fund.
Th is paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso
z39.48– 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
For Bob

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Meredith & Ends 34
2 Th rowing Th ings in Th ack eray 66
3 Gaskell’s Lost Objects 102
4 Murdoch and the Monolith 122
Notes 155 Bibliography 169 Index 185

Acknowledgments
Th is book began at the University of California, Berkeley, where
I was lucky enough to meet Kent Puckett. Kent took on the
challenge of advising me on this project when it was about
something else, and saw it through to publication. More impor-
tantly, he showed me how to write about reading with humor
and warmth. Th at the book is complex, and that it is fi nished, I
owe to him. I am grateful to Catherine Gallagher, Charles Al-
tieri, and Michael Lucey for their rigorous engagement with the
manuscript and its author at early stages. Th e remarkable work
on nineteenth- century literature done by members of my cohort
at Berkeley—especially Ryan McDermott, Leslie Walton Mon-
stavicius, D. Rae Greiner, and Vlasta Vranjes—kept me engaged
with the period while I read around it. Ryan McDermott read
the entire manuscript, but even more valuable to me than the
generosity of his feedback is the example of his brilliant prose. I
believe that C. D. Blanton drafted the last line of the book.
Object Lessons found a wealth of insightful readers at the Uni-
versity of California, Irvine, each of whom made a signifi cant
impact on the shape and character of its argument. Th e mem-
bers of my reading group—Andrea Henderson, Michael Szalay,
and Richard Godden—did nothing less than make the project
a book. Th e stakes of my argument, its contribution to the fi eld,