From 1830 to 1870 advertising brought in its wake a new understanding of how the subject read and how language operated. Sara Thornton presents a crucial moment in print culture, the early recognition of what we now call a 'virtual' world, and proposes new readings of key texts by Dickens and Balzac.

Autorentext
SARA THORNTON is Professor of English at the University of Paris 7 Denis-Diderot, France. She studied French literature at the University of London, UK, and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris before writing her PhD and 'habilitation' on Victorian literature. Publications include David Copperfield: Lectures d'une Oeuvre and Circulation and Transfer of Key Scenes in Nineteenth-century Literature.

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Contents Acknowledgements List of figures Introduction THE LANGUAGE OF THE WALLS: SPACES, PRACTICES, SUBJECTIVITIES Thoroughfares for Inscription Moving Text/Motion Pictures Montage, Mirage and the (Mis)behavior of Language Forms of Subjection The Making of the Subject READING THE DICKENS ADVERTISER: MERGING PARATEXT AND NOVEL The Floating Gaze 'Anti-Bleak House' Gothic Mechanisms of Advertisement and Novel BALZAC'S REVOLUTION OF SIGNS: ADVERTISEMENT AS TEXTUAL PRACTICE The Language of the Paris Walls The becoming virtual of César Birotteau Dissolving Literature: lost illusions or great expectations? Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index