Aestheticism and the Marriage Market in Victorian Popular Fiction: The Art of Female Beauty (Literary Texts and the Popular Marketplace)

Based on close readings of five Victorian novels, Hallum
presents an original study of the interaction between popular fiction, the
marriage market and the aesthetic movement. She uses popular texts by Rhoda Broughton, George Meredith, Ouida, Marie Corelli and George du Maurier to trace the
development of aestheticism, examining the differences between the authors,
including their approach, style and gender. Wider issues concerning Victorian
womanhood, marriage and commodity culture are also explored. It will be of interest to scholars of book history as well
as literature and nineteenth-century society.