“We no longer hate the French”: Sympathy and gallophobia in the Victorian cosmopolitan novel

Kristi N Embry, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of the present project is to examine a form of cosmopolitanism that emerged in Victorian Britain between 1848 and 1875. Victorian cosmopolitanism was understood in two primary ways. First, it was understood to signify an individual’s interest in and cultural engagement with the wider world. Second, it also became understood as an emotionally-charged project that yoked together both commerce and affect in such a way as to bring Britain closer to her European neighbors in new—and potentially unsettling—ways. This project demonstrates how this larger cosmopolitan project helped usher in a new era of Anglo-French relations. Following the conclusion of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic War in 1815, Britain’s need to reestablish her commercial ties with the Continent led to a sea-change in English sentiments toward their traditional enemies, the French. As the English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton put it to the French diplomat Talleyrand in, England and the English (1833), “We no longer hate the French ” (42). As my study will demonstrate, this sea-change was predicated on the need for exchanges of ethical sympathies that helped maintain the commercial, affective, and cultural relationship between England and France. My study shows how—and to what ends—novels of the Victorian period reflected and drove the Anglo-Franco relations that had such a major impact on both countries and on the world. In particular, this study focuses on the Victorian cosmopolitan novel, a literary genre that blended together the conventions of English social realism and the romance to produce and harmonize the cosmopolitan order. Aided by writers including William Makepeace Thackeray, Ouida, Anthony Trollope, and Oscar Wilde, the Victorian cosmopolitan novel and the Anglo-French relationship helped facilitate the rise of global capitalism, a development that helped define the masculine identity of the English gentleman, a literary genre that merged together the conventions of English social realism and the romance to produce and harmonize the international order. Aided by the Victorian cosmopolitan novels written by William Makepeace Thackeray, Ouida, and Anthony Trollope, Victorian cosmopolitanism and the Anglo-French relationship contributed to the rise of global capitalism, impacted the development of Britain’s class structure, contributed to the cross-cultural development of masculine identities.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Allen, Purdue University.

Subject Area

British and Irish literature

COinS