Tag: Moral tales

What is it like to have a book in print?

My first book was published in February. For an academic, this is an entirely normal event: to progress in most humanities fields, you need a book. But it’s also a big deal. I started the book in 2008, as my doctoral dissertation, and it was a big part of my life for a long time.

Good Feelings about Bad Footnotes

Classes are over, and as I wait for students’ final projects to come in, I’ve turned my attention to my book project. The project developed from my dissertation, and as I’m revising I am adding a new chapter, about the Victorian industrial novels. The project is about the ways in which Victorian novelists incorporate into

Moral Clues, Moral Tales

Consider these stories: A bottle of vitriolic acid with no stopper is the only clue at a murder scene. The murderer is discovered when a stolen check is found to be discolored, and a scientific experiment reveals that the discoloration was caused by vitriolic acid. The same markings are found on the guilty party’s pocket,