Fiction in the Age of Photography: The Legacy of British Realism - Tapa dura

In this engaging look at Victorian fiction, Armstrong show how the unprecedented popularity of photography affected and informed the works of major writers. Choosing well from classic Victorian novels, Armstrong examines the works of authors like Dickens, Emily Bronte;, and Oscar Wilde as she traces the development of realism and discusses the powerful visual clues that began to drive plot and determine how characters relate to one another. As much social commentary as literary criticism, the book brings to life a society obsessed with the camera and burdened with what Armstrong calls a 'mass visuality.' An important work.--Ellen Sullivan "Library Journal "

In this study of British realism, the author explains how fiction entered into a relationship with the new popular art of Victorian photography that transformed the world into a picture. She contends that literary critism assumes a text is gesturing toward the real whenever it invokes a photograph.