Mastery and Slavery in Victorian Writing

Taking Hegel's famous "Master Slave Dialectic" as its starting point, this wide-ranging book examines portrayals of masters, slaves and servants in works by Carlyle, Dickens, Eliot, Collins and others. The questions raised about modern mastery and slavery are pursued in relation to such intriguing 19th-century figures as the American slave holder, the musician, the demagogue and the Jew.