Charles Reade’s
Hard Cash: A Matter-of-Fact Romance(1863) exemplifies the generic hybridity of Victorian sensation fiction, incorporating elements of the social problem novel and nautical melodrama alongside such familiar sensation tropes as wrongful captivity and criminally appropriated fortunes, combined with an authorial insistence on truth in fiction. A sequel to Reade’s
Love Me Little, Love Me Long(1859) — which introduced the characters of Lucy Fountain, the sailor David Dodd, and the banker Richard Hardie — the novel was first serialised as
Very Hard Cash, appearing in Charles Dickens’s
All the Year Roundfrom 28 March to 26 December, 1863. A three-volume book publication by Sampson Low, under the shortened title of
Hard Cash, quickly followed within the same year.
1808 words
Citation: Ducusin, Marc Milton. "Hard Cash". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 May 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38886, accessed 23 November 2024.]