The Story of Some Famous Books Book

Freedgood's analysis of things in four significant Victorian novels (Jane Eyre, Mary Barton, Great Expectations, and Middlemarch) provides a type of case study in thing theory and cultural studies. Freedgood identifies objects in the novels that seem to get reference at significant moments, and then she unpacks the cultural significance of those objects in a way that informs themes of the novel. The mahogany furniture in Jane Eyre connects Madeira, Barbados, and England in intricate themes of consumerism, slavery, and mastery. The checked cotton curtains in Mary Barton tell a similar tale about the cotton industry in northern England, India, and the United States. Magwitch's tobacco in Great Expectations evokes culturally embedded ideas of Aboriginal genocide, American slavery, and colonial aggression. Dorothea's "plain dress" in Middlemarch becomes the author's attempt to embed cultural "highbrow" references into the novel as a way to distinguish the work as literature rather than purely fiction. Freedgood's introduction and Coda are exemplary apparatus to delineate her methodology and approach to terms like consumer culture, fetishism, and metonym/metaphor.

Apart from serving as an effective model of reading literature with thing theory in mind, Freedgood's book was fairly accessible, direct, and brief (all good things, in my opinion). I even found myself literally laughing aloud at some of her asides and commentary, making this book an enjoyable, informative, and (for my research) invaluable critical study.