Thackeray's Cultural Frame of Reference

This study of "The Newcomes" explores the cultural density found within the novel and reveals how Thackeray exploited allusion in order to present an archetypal and cyclical vision of life, questioning the status and value of fictions and blurring distinctions between history and fiction.

Inhalt
The richest of Victorian fictions; literary allusion in "The Newcomes" - English poetry, Keats, Tennyson, Shakespeare - Horace and the classics - the Bible - novels - theatre, ballet, songs - childhood lore; the art world; history and India; France of the Citizen King; London and the significance of topography; newpapers; names.