Women and Property in the Eighteenth-Century Novel by April London (review)

humanities 375 tionship to his authors in the same way as Bakhtin views Dostoevsky's relationship to his characters. For both authors, writing in this way means`allowing others to speak autonomously, rather than as vehicles for the views of the author.' Lennon calls this `polyphonic thinking.' It involves`independence of voice,' `personalized consciousness,' and `open-endedness .' The latter feature (perhaps the most important) means that the discussion can be resumed and revised by the author at any time, and that the author's voice is often `drowned out' by the characters, who sometimes even speak against him. Given this new framework for reading Bayle, Lennon goes on to discuss several basic and recurrent themes in Bayle's works. Chapter 3 (`Authority') deals with the question of what we should believe. This involves determining both what an author (or scripture) means and whether what is said is true. This issue was central to Bayle's famous controversy with Arnauld and Jansenism. In chapter 4 (`Toleration') Lennon treats Bayle's long and bitter quarrel with Jurieu about heresy and persecution (i.e., the proper interpretation of Luke 14:23). Chapter 5 (`Idolatry') deals with Bayle's `dilemma' about idolatry: if the idolator knows that the God he worships is false he is not committing idolatry; but if he does not know this, he is not to be condemned. Chapter 6 (`Providence') argues that, for Bayle, although only God knows his providence, we must never doubt that there is a providence and that God is good despite the undeniable existence of evil. Lennon's application of the concept of polyphonic thinking to Bayle's works throws new light on all the above themes and helps the reader to penetrate, even if not completely reveal, the meaning of this complex and elusive thinker. The book is a major contribution to Bayle scholarship: it is thoroughly researched, philosophically subtle and insightful, stylishly written, and a pleasure to read. It confirms Bayle's place among the giants of modern philosophy. (JAMES C. MORRISON) April London. Women and Property in the Eighteenth-Century Novel Cambridge University Press. x, 262. $94.00 The topic of property has of late taken on portmanteau proportions among scholars, attracting the combined attention of historians, political scientists, legal theorists, literary scholars, and gender studies specialists. April London adds significantly to the literary side of that investigation with the publication of her wide-ranging study of women, property, and the eighteenth-century English novel. Beginning with Samuel Richardson, London traces chronologically through the century the fictional terrain surrounding the axis of property. In part 2 a distinction of sentiment and sensibility in novels by Henry 376 letters in canada 1999 Mackenzie and Thomas Cogan is followed by a welcome discussion of two colonial narratives, Edward Bancroft's the History of Charles Wentworth and an anonymous work, The Female American. The third section explores contrasting versions of female community in works by Sarah Scott, William Dodd, Clara Reeve, Phebe Gibbes, and John Trusler. The book closes with a look at end-of-the-century novels covering the political spectrum, radical to anti-Jacobin; Samuel Jackson Pratt, Robert Bage, Thomas Holcroft, George Walker, Elizabeth Hamilton, and Jane West. As the previous list should make clear, one of this book's strengths is the breadth of the literary ground it covers. Solid readings of more canonical novels are combined with discussions of a number of lesserknown works that may send even specialists to their library shelves. However, the inclusion of virtually unknown works such as The Vagabond, School for Widows, and John Buncle, Junior, Gentleman complement discussion of the more familiar works to underline convincingly London's claims for the cultural work of the fiction in the period. And it is those claims that constitute the focus of this book. London contributes substantially to our understanding of contemporary reading practices through a perceptive analysis of the evolving deployment of georgic and pastoral in the novels of the period. The weight of these traditions B Virgil's influence in particular B on eighteenth-century English poetry is, if the expression may be permitted, a well-tilled field. That influence on the generic development of fiction in...