Shakespeare and the Eighteenth-Century Novel by Kate Rumbold - 9781107584891

Shakespeare and the Eighteenth-Century NovelCultures of Quotation from Samuel Richardson to Jane Austen\nAuthor(s): Kate Rumbold\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9781107584891, 978-1107584891\nSynopsis\nThe eighteenth century has long been acknowledged as a pivotal period in Shakespeare's reception, transforming a playwright requiring 'improvement' into a national poet whose every word was sacred. Scholars have examined the contribution of performances, adaptations, criticism and editing to this process of transformation, but the crucial role of fiction remains overlooked. Shakespeare and the Eighteenth-Century Novel reveals for the first time the prevalence, and the importance, of fictional characters' direct quotations from Shakespeare. Quoting characters ascribe emotional and moral authority to Shakespeare, redeploy his theatricality, and mock banal uses of his words; by shaping in this way wha.