In this new study, which draws on the findings of recent literary scholarship, Josephine McDonagh shows how George Eliot needs to be recognized, not as an uncritical traditionalist, but as a writer who examined the processes of social and cultural change from the stand point of the progressive intellectual culture of her time.
The book explores the disturbing concept of child murder within British culture during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, delving into societal attitudes, legal implications, and the impact of such crimes on public consciousness. Through historical analysis, it reveals how these events shaped cultural narratives and influenced perceptions of morality and justice in that era.
Taking a theoretical, new historicist stance, this book examines De Quincey's less-frequently scrutinized works. It shows De Quincey aspiring to the formation of new fields of knowledge, and the attempt to unify these into an organic whole.