AlterLetra

Questions of Appearances in Defoe’s Roxana

Hugo Blumenthal — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:52:15 +0000

In contrast to Humphry Clinker, in which appearances appear not to be so important (even if, as we have shown, there are some important questions opened by them), Defoe’s Roxana (The Fortunate Mistress) could be said to depend strongly on a series of questions of appearances.

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Questions of Appearances in Tobias Smollett’s Humphry Clinker

Hugo Blumenthal — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:50:10 +0000

On a first impression, on a first reading, Humphry Clinker is not a novel about appearances. For one, its plot doesn’t seem to revolve around appearances. None of the narrators, as main characters (though not all the ‘main’ characters are narrators, and even to call some of them ‘narrators’ could be problematic, but we will get back to this) could be said, for example, to be concealing something (or putting on an appearance), worried about appearances, or their life and/or future to depend much on appearances (that is, especially if we compare them to other main characters/narrators such as Evelina, Moll Flanders or Roxana, in their respective novels). However…

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Questions of Appearances in Fielding’s Tom Jones

Hugo Blumenthal — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:23:01 +0000

Tom Jones —as most eighteenth-century novels— appears as a novel of education —in the double sense of being about the education of the protagonist, for the education of the reader— and about the function and the importance of appearances in the world.

Full text available at www.18appearances.co.uk