Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts Collection

Nationalism and Desire in Early Historical Fiction analyses a sequence of early-nineteenth-century British and American texts from a perspective informed by Rene Girard''s theory of triangular of ''mimetic'' desire. Jane Porter''s The Scottish Chiefs , Sydney Owenson''s The Wild Irish Girl , Sir Walter Scott''s Waverley , Old Mortality , Rob Roy , The Pirate and Redgauntlet , and Fenimore Cooper''s The Last of the Mohicans and Lionel Lincoln are given detailed new readings. General conclusions about the relationship of desire and nationalism in historical fiction are proposed.