Contents
1. Reimagined Communities: An Introduction
2. The Critic as Clubman: Origins of the Social Life of Criticism
Virtual Networking: Periodical Clubs and the Public Sphere
Gendering Discourse: Collectivity and Female Judgment
Tattling on Tradition: The Cases of Jenny Distaff and Mrs. Crackenthorpe
A Network of Spies: The Female Spectator
3. The Critic as Interlocutor: Anna Jameson and the Politics of Dialogue
The Round Table: Male Collectivity and the Nineteenth-Century Critic
Scripting Gender: Critical Discourse and the Politics of Gallantry
Solitary Confinement: Anna Jameson and the Sentimental Woman Writer
Opening a Dialogue: Female Criticsin Conversation
4. The Critic as Sociologist: Sociable Dissent in the Work of George Eliot
Laws of Progress: The Sociological Foundations of the Westminster Review
A Common Fund: The Female Salon and Critical Collectivity
A Fellowship in High Knowledge: Dorothea Brooke as Female Critic
The Critic in Exile: Impressions of Theophrastus Such
5. Critics without Borders: The Antisocial Criticism of Eliza Lynn Linton and Vernon Lee
Tootles and Screeds: The Problem of Classification
The Shrieking Sisterhood: Eliza Lynn Linton and the Limits of Community
A First-Rate Fellow: The Case of Jane Osborne
An Antisocial Tirade: Vernon Lee’s Althea
A Society of Outsiders: Feminist Criticism and Collectivity after the Nineteenth Century
Notes
Bibliography
Index