Reading Ideas in Victorian Literature : Literary Content as Artistic Experience (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture)

Argues against the repeated emphasis on literary form and for the artistic importance of literary contentIt is natural to assume that if works of literature are artistically valuable, it's not because of anything they say but because of what they are: beautiful. Works of art try to say nothing, to use their content only as matter for realizing the beauty of complex form. But what if appreciating the things a work of literature has to say is a way of appreciating it as a work of art? Often dismissed as too lengthy, messy, and preachy to qualify as genuine art, in fact Victorian narrative challenges our conceptions about what makes art worth engaging.