3 Review(s)

This volume explores boredom as a possible force for good in the Victorian novel. Boredom in these works is an important means through which female characters are able to achieve a greater sense of self-awareness. In her discussion of Charlotte Bronte's ""Jane Eyre"" (1847), George Eliot's ""Middlemarch"" (1871-72), and Henry James' ""The Portrait of a Lady"" (1881), the author examines both the deleterious and restorative aspects of boredom and shows how this subtle theme has continued to be used by more modern authors.