Intonation in nineteenth‐century fiction: The voices of paraphrase

Abstract

Passages from Charles Dicken's Bleak House and Henry James's “The Next Time” illustrate the stylistic use of intonation patterns in nineteenth century fiction. In Bleak House, Esther Summerson paraphrases Harold Skimpole in a style favoring intonation patterns that convey a particular impression of Skimpole. In “The Next Time,” the narrator paraphrases Ralph Limbert in a passage that requires suitable intonation, selected by context and style, to ‘make vivid Limbert's ineffectual purity and the narrator's vexation at Limbert's fate.