Fictions of law

This study explores eighteenth-century fictional narrative in terms of its treatment of law, revealing a tradition of narrative discourse as legal critique which spans the century. In addition to discussions of Defoe, Swift, Richardson, Fielding and Sterne, the study addresses female novelists such as Eliza Haywood, Frances Sheridan, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Wollstonecraft and Elizabeth Inchbald, arguing for a re-evaluation of their work. The survey of eighteenth-century law which has been made to provide a context for reading novels, falls into four areas: marital law, financial and inheritance law, the legal context for the concept of 'virtue', and criminal law. The study reveals that fictional predicaments that have been taken as romantic or melodramatic, are often grounded in the precise, actual practices of eighteenth-century law.