Provincial Fiction and the Decline of 'Puritan England'

Greenslade, William

Abstract

This chapter situates three major exponents of provincial fiction, Thomas Hardy, ‘Mark Rutherford’ and Arnold Bennett, in relation to ideas about provincialism, and changes in the relationship between the metropolitan centre and provincial and regional culture through economic and technological developments of the late nineteenth century. It examines Hardy’s commitment to an enthusiastic, iconoclastic provincial spirit, the resilience of non-conformist idealism in Rutherford, and Bennett’s capacity to assimilate provincial dissent to a vision of modern secular life.

Citation

Greenslade, W. (2010). Provincial Fiction and the Decline of 'Puritan England'. In A. Gasiorek, & P. Parrinder (Eds.), The Oxford History of the Novel in English: The Reinvention of The British and Irish Novel 1880-1940 (118-132). Oxford: Oxford University Press

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Pages: 118-132
• Book Title: The Oxford History of the Novel in English: The Reinvention of The British and Irish Novel 1880-1940
• ISBN: 9780199559336
• Keywords: provincial fiction, puritan England
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/985198
• Publisher URL: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199559336.do