Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830–1914

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Review "Rule of Darkness is a significant contribution to studies seeking to reveal how the English in the nineteenth century created demeaning and often destructive images of Mrica and the East, images that continue to haunt twentieth-century writing, films, and attitudes." (Conradiana)"This learned and incisive study shows how deeply imperialist assumptions pervade Victorian narratives from the adventure yarn through the realist novel and the 'Imperial Gothic' of fantasy fiction. Brantlinger both colonizes a range of noncanonical texts and explores the imperialist darkness at the heart of such standard authors as Macaulay and Thackeray, Kipling and Conrad.... His mapping of overgrown paths between Victorian liberalism and imperialism, abolitionism and racism, are invaluable guides to the imaginative politics of the last century." (Virginia Quarterly Review)"The path-breaking work Brantlinger has done opens up the terrain of Victorian culture in refreshing and remarkable ways. His analysis of the imperialist impulse in many heretofore isolated phases of Victorian culture is both inspiring and dependable, a rare combination. Rule of Darkness will undoubtedly be complemented and extended by the work of others in the near future, but it is hard to see how it could be surpassed." (Novel)"An outstanding analysis of imperialism in 19th-century British literature.... Brantlinger deploys a real wealth of material, providing fresh insights at every turn." (Times Higher Education Supplement) Read more Review "An unusually full treatment of the imperialist idea as that idea developed and altered during seven decades of the nineteenth century. Patrick Brantlinger gives us a fresh and valuable discussion of the novels of Marryat, approaches Thackeray from an unusual angle, and demonstrates how crucial to the justification of the colonialist project were such matters as the Indian Mutiny and the emergence of Africa as a metaphor for savagery and darkness." (Elliot L. Gilbert, University of California, Davis) Read more See all Editorial Reviews