Distant Fields : Essays in Eighteenth Century Fictions of Wales

Eighteenth-century English fictions are full of stereotypical images of Wales and the Welsh. This volume explores a selection of 18th-century texts that have recieved little critical attention in Wales, even as they record a part of the history of Welsh people.

Eighteenth-century English fictions are full of stereotypical images of Wales and the Welsh, from the popular lampooning of the Welsh as dishonest, credulous and superstitious to the idealisation of Wales as the home of the noble savage and a place of natural virtue and innocence. The Wales of these fictions is an imagined nation, rarely brought into being by the Welsh themselves. Moira Dearnley explores a selection of eighteenth-century texts that have received little critical attention in Wales, even as they record a part of the history of the Welsh people. She looks at both familiar and less well-known authors, from Tobias Smollett to Mary 'Perdita' Robinson, and traces the varied ways in which 'that principality contiguous to England' was represented. Distant Fields: Essays on Eighteenth-Century Fictions of Wales is a pioneering book dealing with a little-explored subject and will appeal to all those interested in questions of nation and narration, the cultural and national contexts of eighteenth-century fiction, and the history and development of fictions of Wales.