British fiction and the production of social order, 1740-1830

"In British Fiction and the Production of Social Order, Miranda J. Burgess examines what Romantic-period writers called "romance"; a hybrid genre defined by its role in the negotiation of conflicts between political economy and moral philosophy. Reading a broad range of fictional and nonfictional works published between 1740 and 1830, Burgess places actors such as Richardson, Scott, Austen, and Wollstonecraft in a new economic, social, and cultural context. She explores the interaction between writing and the formation of community, particularly in relation to issues of legitimacy and gender. Burgess argues that the romance held a key role in remaking the national order of a Britain dependent on ideologies of human nature for justification of its social, economic, and political systems."--Jacket.