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Until recently, the English Romantic-era novel has primarily been treated as separate from English Romanticism proper, as having virtually no points of contact with its aesthetics, themes, and ideologies. Exceptions have traditionally included gothic novels and the post-Romantic-era Wuthering Heights, but hundreds of other novels produced during the period not modeled on that genre are generally treated as unrelated to Romanticism.1 The problem is certainly rooted in genre differences; with the exception of gothic novels and romances, the novel in general has seemed unable to address Romanticism's interests. The problem is compounded by gender differences; novels by women especially, as approximately half from the era are,2 have seemed the more incapable of embracing Romantic ideologies. But keeping discourse about Romanticism and the era's novels separate has resulted in a hierarchization that until very recently only has left the novel devalued, when not utterly ignored. While recent works and classroom practices at some universities challenge the Romantic canon, the traditionally recognized poets of the period have remained for the most part privileged figures whose work must be taught, with other writers treated as subordinate to them or getting discussed primarily vis-a-vis their relation to the canonized male poets. As such, the canonized poets and their works have continued to define what "Romanticism" is; canonical Romanticism has thus been synonymous with the Romantic poetry of six figures, and despite challenges, this construct has proved not easily shaken, displaced, or significantly altered.3 That situation will no doubt change, if current challenges to conventional definitions and canons of Romanticism continue both to be published and incorporated into teaching practices.
Some recent works address the situation by simply treating the era's novels as comprising a valid field of study without explicitly or consistently addressing the genre's relation-or lack of it-to the canonized poetry of the period. Gary Kelly's English Fiction of the Romantic Period: 1789-1830, for instance, suggests that all literary genres produced in that period emerged in response to the same cultural issues and concerns, albeit in different ways.4 Such an approach is valuable for making it possible to deprivilege canonical Romantic poetry's aesthetics and ideologies as the mark against which all other works must be measured and, generally, found lacking. And this approach is the more important for...