Description: This study places the novels of Tobias Smollett and Walter Scott in two critical contexts: the rise, from the middle of the eighteenth century, of the discourses of the human or social sciences; and the dominance of the novel by women writers throughout the eighteenth century. It argues that both authors, so often seen as paradigmatically masculine, in fact use the discourses of feminine romance or the domestic novel to figure authorial control over narrative structure. It suggests that they do so in order to combine utopian plot-endings, enacting a nostalgic tory ideology, with an essentially deterministic account of history and society, borrowed from the human sciences of the Scottish Enlightenment.
Review Quotes: «Irvine makes a strong case for the connections between Smollett and Scott, and between the categories of Enlightenment and romance. His readings form an important contribution to the history of the novel, narrative theory, and the gender of writing.» (Catherine Jones, Scottish Studies Review)