Bastards and Foundlings: Illegitimacy in Eighteenth-century EnglandIn this compelling interdisciplinary study of what has been called the "century of illegitimacy," Lisa Zunshine seeks to uncover the multiplicity of cultural meanings of illegitimacy in the English Enlightenment. Bastards and Foundlings pits the official legal views on illegitimacy against the actual everyday practices that frequently circumvented the law; it reconstructs the history of social institutions called upon to regulate illegitimacy, such as the London Foundling Hospital; and it examines a wide array of novels and plays written in response to the same concerns that informed the emergence and functioning of such institutions. By recreating the context of the national preoccupation with bastardy, with a special emphasis on the gender of the fictional bastard/foundling, Zunshine offers new readings of "canonical" texts, such as Steele's The Conscious Lovers, Defoe's Moll Flanders, Fielding's Tom Jones, Moore's The Foundling, Colman's The English Merchant, Richardson's Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison, Burney's Evelina, Smith's Emmeline, Edgewort's Belinda, and Austen's Emma, as well as of less well-known works, such as Haywood's The Fortunate Foundlings, Shebbeare's The Marriage Act, Bennett's The Beggar Girl and Her Benefactors, and Robinson's The Natural Daughter. |
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abandoned appears argued argument Austen bastard Belmont birth born Burney century characters charity Charles child claim Clarissa comedy concern Conscious Lovers considered critical cultural daughter Defoe discussion early economic edited eighteenth eighteenth-century Emma England English Evelina fact fate father female fictional Fielding fortune Foundling Hospital Frances girl Grandison hand Harriet heroine History illegitimacy illegitimate illegitimate children important infant infanticide inheritance issue John Jones keep Lady late legitimate literary London Lovelace marriage married means Moore moral mother murder narrative natural never Note novel observes origins parents play plot political poor position possible prevention Quoted readers reason references remains represented rhetoric Richard Richardson romance seems sense sexual social Steele Steele’s story suggests Thomas tion tradition turn University Press virtue woman women writing York young
Bibliographic information
| Title | Bastards and Foundlings: Illegitimacy in Eighteenth-century England |
| Author | Lisa Zunshine |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Ohio State University Press, 2005 |
| ISBN | 0814209955, 9780814209950 |
| Length | 228 pages |
| Subjects | › › Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |