155:" in a way that "strains both modes to the limit". More recently, Anna Peak has suggested that the Victorians themselves identified a wide range of works as "sensation novels" and that the connecting characteristic is the way such works represent lower-class characters: "one way of thinking of the sensation novel is as a genre that disrupts a middle-class perspective, whereas realist novels (that famously middle-class genre), even when including lower-class characters, deal with them in a way that usually does not similarly disrupt a middle-class perspective."
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88:. Whereas romance and realism had traditionally been contradictory modes of literature, they were brought together in sensation fiction. The sensation novelists commonly wrote stories that were allegorical and abstract; the abstract nature of the stories gave the authors room to explore scenarios that wrestled with the social anxieties of the
92:. The loss of identity is seen in many sensation fiction stories because this was a common social anxiety; in Britain, there was an increased use in record keeping and therefore people questioned the meaning and permanence of identity. The social anxiety regarding identity is reflected in novels such as
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Sensation novels drew influence as well from the
Newgate novels that were popular during the 1830s and 40s; similarly to the sensation novel, Newgate novels created much controversy and debate. Authors of both genres found inspiration in newspaper police reports; the crime mysteries of the sensation
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all wrote and acted for the theatre, and the stage helped many novelists gain recognition as authors. Peter Brooks defines melodrama as an attempt "to find, to articulate, to demonstrate, to 'prove' the existence of a moral universe which, though put into question, masked by villainy and perversions
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When sensation novels burst upon a quiescent
England these novels became immediate best sellers, surpassing all previous book sales records. However, highbrow critics writing in academic journals of the day decried the phenomenon and criticized its practitioners (and readers) in the harshest terms;
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secrecy and the body go hand in hand, and the more sensation novels highlight the elusiveness or artificiality of human identity, the more hair-raising Gothic loci appear as the ultimate place where fragment of truth can be recollected and reunited and story
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to explore themes considered provocative by societal norms and to question the artificiality of identity. In the 1860s, the sensation novels and theatre became closely intertwined; many of the famous sensation novelists wrote as well for the stage.
231:", is exemplary of the sensation novelists desire to explore the path less trodden. The main character, Jennings, inadvertently opens up an inner eye that can see the spiritual world after consuming too much green tea.
223:. The sensation novel puts a modern spin on the classic Gothic ghost stories by placing the stories in contemporary settings and this produces the effect of creating a terror that is real and believable.
642:
Talairach-Vielmas, Laurence. "Sensation
Fiction: A Peep Behind the Veil." The Victorian Gothic. Ed. Smith, Andrew, and William Hughes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University, 2012. 29-42. Print
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A common Gothic influence seen in the sensation novels is the search for a secret. Moreover, crime scenes at wells or near water are symbolic of the "depth" which is a key element of
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perhaps providing the most thoughtful criticism in his 'Fiction – Fair and Foul'. Some scholars speculate that the notoriety of the genre may have contributed to its popularity.
235:
novels, however, were less interested in actually catching the criminal and instead focused more on the criminal's identity and how they became a criminal.
628:
Pykett, Lyn. "The
Newgate novel and sensation fiction, 1830-1868." Crime Fiction. Ed. Martin Priestman. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2003. 19-39. Print
903:
Peak, Anna. "Servants and the
Victorian Sensation Novel." SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 54 (2014), 835-851. DOI 10.1353/sel.2014.0042.
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described the sensation novel as "extremely provocative of that sensation in the palate and throat which is a premonitory symptom of nausea".
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Muller, C. "Victorian
Sensationalism: The Short Stories of Wilkie Collins." Unisa English Studies. 11.1 (1973): 12-13. Web. 8 Jun. 2014.
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The
Victorian sensation novel has been variously defined as a "novel-with-a-secret" and as the sort of novel that combines "romance and
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Typically the sensation novel focused on shocking subject matter including adultery, robbery, disguise, revenge, kidnapping, insanity,
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in the 1860s and 1870s, centering taboo material shocking to its readers as a means of musing on contemporary social anxieties.
133:(1862). Perhaps the earliest use of the term "sensation fiction" as a name for such novels appears in the 1861 edition of the
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genres. The genre's popularity was conjoined to an expanding book market and growth of a reading public, by-products of the
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Loesberg, Jonathan. Ideology of
Narrative Form in Sensation. University of California, 1986. JSTOR. Web. 10 Jun. 2014.
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assumption that sensational events were something foreign and divorced from comfortable middle-class life.
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Adams, James Eli. A History of
Victorian Literature. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Web. 4 Jun. 2014.
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Sensation fiction is commonly seen to have emerged as a definable genre in the wake of three novels:
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Saunders, Otley, & Co.'s. "Literature." Literary Budget 1 Nov. 1861: 38. Web. 10 Jun. 2014.
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The
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The Gothic influence on the sensation novel is described by Laurence Talairach-Vielmas thus:
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Literary genre of fiction that peaked in Great Britain in the 1860s-70s
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of judgement, does exist and can be made to assert its presence.
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The American Imperial Gothic: Popular Culture, Empire, Violence
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Captioned "The Novelist who invented Sensation", caricature of
531:, 2002) is meant as a tribute to the sensational novel genre.
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Peak, Anna. "Servants and the Victorian Sensation Novel."
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The Maniac in the Cellar: Sensation Novels of the 1860s
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Hughes, Winifred (2002). Brantlinger, Patrick (ed.).
836:"John Mullan on The Luminaries – Guardian book club"
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699:Acting with the Voice: The Art of Recording Books
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616:. Princeton: Princeton University, 1980. Print.
181:Sensation novelists drew on the influences of
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135:Saunders, Otley, & co.'s Literary Budget.
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722:Tillotson, Kathleen (1969). Introduction to
585:The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
57:of fiction that achieved peak popularity in
350:Passages in the Life of a Fast Young Lady
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139:Sensation novels were the precursor of
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263:satirised these works in his 1871
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873:. The Guardian - 17 June 2006.
491:Neo-Victorian novels, such as
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30:For the theatrical work by
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892:The Maniac in the Cellar
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86:Industrial Revolution
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475:Desperate Remedies
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