Sensibility and economics in the novel, 1740-1800

Sensibility and Economics in the Novel, 1740-1800, argues that the sentimental novel, usually seen as a 'feminine' genre concentrating exclusively on emotional response, is in fact actively involved in contemporary economic and political debates.

Spanning the period encompassing the rise, heyday and decline of sentimentalism, the book considers how the trajectory of the movement affected the sentimental novel's treatment of economic issues and their relations to discourses of sensibility and femininity, and assesses the impact of the pressures of the post. Revolutionary 1790s on these areas.