Fictions of Friendship in the Eighteenth-Century Novel

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The book delves into the interplay between friendship ideals and narrative structures in eighteenth-century British fiction, highlighting how novelists like Samuel Richardson and Mary Shelley utilized classical concepts of friendship as a pedagogical tool. It examines the authors' contexts and their audiences, revealing how the discourse of friendship addressed the growing influence of readers and navigated aesthetic and moral challenges. By exploring gender dynamics in these narratives, the study illustrates how male and female models of amity influenced character development and the commercial landscape of novel writing.