This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and an extensive collection of historical documents relating to the composition and reception of the novel, the social implications of England’s shift from a rural agrarian to an urban industrial economy, the role of women in provincial society, and the contemporary preoccupation with health and the treatment of illness.
Kristin Flieger Samuelian teaches in the Department of English at George Mason University. She has published articles on Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Elizabeth Gaskell.