Music and the Two Nations in Victorian Fiction

FAIN: FT-53172-05

Phyllis Weliver
St. Louis University (Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766-0998)

My project represents the final part of a long-term endeavor to write a monograph entitled MUSIC AND THE TWO NATIONS IN VICTORIAN FICTION. Scholars have explored how politically-motivated crowds as represented in literature were important to nation-building in 19th-century Britain. My book widens the investigation to “musical groups” depicted in the novel. Despite a perceived integration of the classes during the third quarter of the 19th century, fiction written about “musical groups” during this period demonstrates that class relations (the “two nations”) were still conflicted. I propose to use an NEH Summer Stipend to conduct final revisions and check sources using archives in England.