READING FOR HEALTH
Series in Victorian Studies
Joseph McLaughlin, series editor
Katherine D. Harris, Forget Me Not: The Rise of the British Literary Annual, 1823–1835
Rebecca Rainof, The Victorian Novel of Adulthood: Plot and Purgatory in Fictions of Maturity
Erika Wright, Reading for Health: Medical Narratives and the Nineteenth-Century Novel
Daniel Bivona and Marlene Tromp, editors, Culture and Money in the Nineteenth Century: Abstracting Economics
Reading for Health
Medical Narratives and the Nineteenth-Century Novel
Erika Wright
OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
ATHENS, OHIO
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
© 2016 by Ohio University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wright, Erika, 1970– author.
Title: Reading for health : medical narratives and the nineteenth-century novel / Erika Wright.
Description: Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, [2016] | Series: Series in Victorian studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015041247| ISBN 9780821422243 (hc : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780821445631 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: English fiction—19th century—History and criticism. | Literature and medicine—Great Britain—History—19th century. | Medicine in literature.
Classification: LCC PR878.M42 W75 2016 | DDC 823/.8093561—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041247
For Ted and Devin
Contents
Introduction: Becoming Patient Readers
Chapter One: Jane Austen’s Plots of Prevention
Chapter Two: Health, Identity, and Narrative Authority in Jane Eyre
Chapter Three: Quarantine, Social Theory, and Little Dorrit
Chapter Four: The Omniscience of Invalidism: The Case of Harriet Martineau
Part Three: Professionalization
Chapter Five: Narrative Competence and the Family Doctor in Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters
Afterword: Health in Narrative Medicine
Acknowledgments
Like staying healthy, writing a book takes sustained effort and tremendous discipline. And when that fails, it takes a little luck and a lot of outside support. I am grateful for the opportunity to thank the many people whose advice, encouragement, and humor appear in the pages of this book. My first debt of gratitude goes to Hilary Schor, who devoted countless hours and attention to my work, challenging me to read and think more deeply and inspiring me to write with passion and conviction. Her words and influence are present throughout this book. I want to thank Jim Kincaid for guiding me with his wit and unconventional wisdom, both of which broadened my understanding of Victorian culture and altered my conception of our own. For her insight and encouragement, I offer my sincerest gratitude to Emily Anderson. Our numerous conversations allowed me to see more clearly my vision for this project. Meg Russett read (and reread) the manuscript, offering guidance that helped me clarify my aims and assert my authority. I am grateful to Jonathan Grossman, who, at a crucial moment, transformed my thinking about the book, allowing me to understand the larger stakes of the story I was trying to tell. My heartfelt thanks must go to Joe Boone. His brilliance, friendship, and, above all, unwavering confidence in this project sustained me throughout this process.
I am fortunate to have a strong and extended network of friends, family, and colleagues who have supported me (personally and professionally) along the way. John Jordan, Philippa Levine, Theresa Mangum, Tania Modleski, Susan Zeiger, and the whole cast of The Dickens Universe provided valuable advice early on when I was still figuring out what to make of illness and health in the Victorian novel. For their thoughtful comments on dissertation chapters, conference papers, book proposals, and manuscript drafts, and for making me laugh, I want to thank Michael Blackie, Leslie Bruce, David Namie, Pamela Schaff, Jeff Solomon, Kathryn Strong Hansen, Alice Villaseñor, and Annalisa Zox-Weaver. I am especially grateful to Beth Callaghan for always being a thoughtful reader and listener, and to Becky Woomer for knowing just what to say and how best to say it. Their scholarly advice and parenting wisdom have served me well. To my mother, Kristin Wright, I owe perhaps the most for always seeing the best in what I do.
