The Afterlife of Character, 1726–1825 Brewer Hardback John Wiley & Sons

The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825Author(s): David A. Brewer\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, United States\nImprint: University of Pennsylvania Press\nISBN-13: 9780812238648, 978-0812238648\nSynopsis\nThe Afterlife of Character, [tel] reconstructs how eighteenth-century British readers invented further adventures for beloved characters, including Gulliver, Falstaff, Pamela, and Tristram Shandy. Far from being close-ended and self-contained, the novels and plays in which these characters first appeared were treated by many as merely a starting point, a collective reference perpetually inviting augmentation through an astonishing wealth of unauthorized sequels. Characters became an inexhaustible form of common property, despite their patent authorship. Readers endowed them with value, knowing all the while that others were doing the same and so were collectively forging a new mode of virtual community.\n By tracing these practices, David A. Brewer sho.