Transport in British Fiction

By: Adrienne E. Gavin and Andrew F. Humphries

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Synopsis: Transport in British Fiction: Technologies of Movement, 1840—1940 is the first essay collection devoted to transport and its various types - horse, train, tram, cab, omnibus, bicycle, ship, car, air and space - in British fiction. Gathering international expertise, its 14 original essays explore the ways in which the social, historical, and cultural impacts of transport integrate with the concerns of fiction across a century marked by both unprecedented technological change and the entrenchment of the novel as the dominant literary form. Analysing textual synthesis of technological advances with rapidly shifting cultural perspectives, the volume explores fiction's fascination with transport's symbolism and its impact upon character, relationships, and society. Exploring transport in contexts including gender, class, sexuality, colonialism, war, urbanism, modernity, travel, crime, and science fiction, the volume offers innovative perspectives on the fictional portrayal of new transport technologies that were as democratizing and progressive as they were threatening and destabilizing.