The Romance of Gambling in the Eighteenth-Century British Novel - (Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultu) by Jessica Richard

About the Book

"Gambling permeated the daily lives of eighteenth-century Britons of all classes. This book explicates the relationship between the rampant gambling in eighteenth-century England, the new forms of gambling-inspired capitalism that transformed British society, and novels that interrogate the new socio-economy of long odds and lucky breaks"--

Book Synopsis

Gambling permeated the daily lives of eighteenth-century Britons of all classes. This book explicates the relationship between the rampant gambling in eighteenth-century England, the new forms of gambling-inspired capitalism that transformed British society, and novels that interrogate the new socio-economy of long odds and lucky breaks.

Review Quotes

'Richard has constructed a conceptually sophisticated intertwining of historical analysis of the eighteenth-century culture of gambling with a series of effective readings of novels and visual images. This is a fine book on the culture of eighteenth century gambling that speaks eloquently to the stakes of our present time.' - Ross Hamilton, Associate Professor of English, Columbia University, USA

'...an immensely engaging argument that explores gambling through an impressive breadth of topics; this work would be of interest to anyone looking at the rise of the novel especially as tied to culture, finance, and the economy.' - Kate Scarth, University of Warwick, BARS Bulletin & Review

About the Author

JESSICA RICHARD is Associate Professor of English at Wake Forest University, USA. She has published articles on Rasselas, Belinda, and Frankenstein. She is the editor of The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (Broadview, 2008).