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Serious Play: The Cultural Form of the Nineteenth-Century Realist Novel (New Cultural Studies)

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Victorian England was a livelier place, at least for its well-to-do, than perhaps later ages perceived it. Franklin contends this in his analysis of novels by famous authors of that era, like Eliot, Thackeray and Charlotte Bronte.

He ties in the plots to the backdrop of gambling and its attendant dangerous connotations. While most of Franklin's discourse involves examining what the sense of play meant in that time, to some readers, the most striking points involve the association with gambling. Especially the allure with which it must have drawn in Victorians.

To a modern person, comparisons of this with Hogarth's celebrated illustrations is inevitable. Though Hogarth drew of an earlier century. Somewhat surprisingly, given the amount of discussion in the text about gambling (and morality), Hogarth is not cited. But his paintings would probably have influenced attitudes in the 19th century.