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Viewing report
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'A Beautiful Fiend'. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, March 2009, Pages: 144
The importance of physical appearance as one of the
narratological techniques of characterization tends
to be overlooked in literary criticism.However, this
method of indirect representation of the characters
was widely employed by the novelists of the 19th
century and played a significant role in helping the
readers at the very beginning of the novel to
interpret tentatively the protagonists, to make
initial predictions about their fate or to speculate
about their hidden qualities. Maria Dorn analyzes
the way physical appearance was used to characterize
the protagonists in the Victorian sensational
novels. Her thesis is that in this genre the way a
character looks is essential for interpretation and
is meant by the novelist to be an encoded clue to
his/her inner personality. Playing upon
physiognomic commonplaces as well as on more
subtle mythological and cultural associations,
sensational novels frequently used physicality of
the characters to express the inexpressible and to
create a strongly visual sensation. Maria looks at
the wide range of novels written by the three titans
of the sensationalists: Wilkie Collins, Mary
Elizabeth Braddon and Mrs. Wood.
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