Harriet Martineau’s
Deerbrook(1839) – described by the politician John Morley as “one of the books that give a rational person pleasure once, but which we hardly look forward to reading again” (Morley 1877, cited in Peterson 2007: 716) – is her only attempt at a three-volume Victorian domestic realistic novel. In her
Autobiography,Martineau describes it as highly unusual for its time in focusing on middle-class life (
Autobiography, 2007: 408-9). In this respect, it occupies an important transitional place between the novels of Jane Austen (which Martineau admired) and those of Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Elizabeth Gaskell, all of whom are known to have read and enjoyed Martineau’s novel. Set in the fictitious village of Deerbrook, the novel concerns two…
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Citation: Sanders, Valerie. "Deerbrook". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 January 2004; last revised 19 April 2024. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9841, accessed 22 November 2024.]
