"Humor and the novel both belong, in important ways, to the nineteenth century. It is in the nineteenth-century that we saw an unprecedented outpouring of novels and short-stories, and it was also in the nineteenth century when 'humor' emerged as the dominant term through which the comic was described. Victorian Humor argues that these two features of nineteenth-century culture shape one another in significant ways and, together, point to a broader societal shift in ways of thinking about the individual. Building upon this historical connection, Victorian Humor offers a new theory and methodology for the interpretation of humor as a technique of narrative communication. This theory is described and illustrated through lively and amusing analyses of a wide range of texts: canonical texts by Dickens, Thackeray, and Trollope, more obscure texts by Bulwer-Lytton, Meredith, and Frances Trollope, as well as the minor works of Eliot and Gaskell. This theory is developed in conversation with recent interdisciplinary research in humor theory and narrative theory, grounded in nineteenth-century literary and intellectual culture. It offers the field of literature and Victorian literature a needful update both to how we understand humor and interpret its presence in narrative"-- Provided by publisher.