MUSICAL CROWD IN ENGLISH FICTION, 1840-1910: CLASS, CULTURE AND NATION

"Phyllis Weaver examines the theme of the 'musical crowd' alongside Victorian social, political, and scientific theories. While usually considered discrete fields today, the fictional works demonstrate that discourses of group management, ethnology, climate, nation, class, and music were highly interactive during a span of at least seventy years. The exchanges between these fields are not readily apparent in looking at the documents produced by the musical profession alone, so fictional works offer unique and significant insight into how various discourses were imagined as mutually constitutive."--Jacket.