Table of Contents
Acknowledgments |
Abbreviations |
Introduction: Physical Difference and the Nineteenth Century |
Theorizing Physical Difference |
Traditions of Bodily Spectacle |
Chapter 1: Littleness in the Novels of Charles Dickens |
A Sentimental Social Critic |
Showman, Collector, Author |
Miniatures and Monsters |
Exploiting the Dwarf-Child |
The Authority of Small Size |
Chapter 2: The Widest Lap: Fatness and Nurturance in Nineteenth-Century Fiction |
Fat People and Fasting Girls |
Dickens's Supplemental Nurturers |
Why Fat? A Broader View |
Fat Sexuality in Maupassant's “Boule de Suif” |
Chapter 3: Female Masculinity in Sensational Fiction, 1860–1890 |
Sensationalism and the Gender Debate |
Making a Place for the Masculine Woman: Marian Halcombe's Happy Ending |