Virtual Play and the Victorian Novel: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Fictional Experience

The author proposes a history of virtual realities in literature, stemming from the imaginary worlds created by novelists like Trollope, Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, and Charles Dickens. It offers a new approach for scholars and students to interpret realist fictions and fictional realities from before the digital age.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 236 pages
Publication date: 22 June 2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Anthony Trollope, the renowned novelist, delved deep into the town he had created in his novels, immersing himself in its intricate details. The very pavement of the city ways became intimately familiar to his footsteps, as if he had walked the same streets himself.

After the conclusion of his novels, William Thackeray pondered the whereabouts of his characters and yearned for their familiar conversations. How can we comprehend the novel as a form of artificial reality?

Timothy Gao offers a captivating perspective on this question. He proposes a history of virtual realities, tracing its roots back to the imaginative worlds crafted by novelists such as Trollope, Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, and Charles Dickens.

This text delves into a brief history of virtual experiences in literature, presenting four in-depth studies of prominent novelists. Additionally, it presents a novel approach for scholars and students to interpret realist fictions and fictional realities from before the digital age.

This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core, making it accessible to a wider audience.

ISBN-13: 9781108940399