Lodore and the “novel of society”

Abstract

Until very recently the fact thatLodoreis a product of its times has been treated as a liability; the novel has been criticised for too readily embracing a conservative domestic ideology. But it is worth considering that in writing her novel in the aftermath of the First Reform Bill, Shelley makes use of the form of fiction most in vogue in the 1830s – the silver-fork novel – as a vehicle to revive ideals of reform articulated by her mother in the 1790s. It is in what might seem the trivial or capricious aspects of her novel that Shelley would insinuate her ideas. Therefore matters topical to writing in the 1830s, such as the American setting of the early chapters of the novel, the appearance of a Polish countess, and reference to the best sort of furniture, serve Shelley as a means to express her opinion.Lodoredesires to be recognised for the skill with which Mary Shelley appeals to popular taste for the purpose of political debate rather than for consolidation of class privilege.