Walter Besant: The Business of Literature and the Pleasures of Reform, edited by Kevin A. Morrison

Abstract

Reviewed by: Walter Besant: The Business of Literature and the Pleasures of Reform ed. by Kevin A. Morrison Heidi Kaufman (bio) Walter Besant: The Business of Literature and the Pleasures of Reform, edited by Kevin A. Morrison; pp. xii + 252. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2019, $120.00, $44.99 paper. The recovery of forgotten authors remains an important centerpiece of Victorian studies. Kevin A. Morrison's recent volume of essays, Walter Besant: The Business of Literature and the Pleasures of Reform, offers a timely and important meditation on the restoration of authors who have fallen out of favor or slipped into obscurity. As Morrison notes, Besant was "one of Britain's most lionized living novelists" yet is now "one of the least read" (1). The essays in this volume offer nuanced reflections on Besant's marginal status, thoughtful speculations about his fall from popularity, and compelling arguments for bringing him back into the Victorian studies fold. The story of Besant's fall from popularity is perhaps unsurprising. He was vocal about his frustration with changing gender roles in the late Victorian period. As Ann Heilmann puts it, Besant believed that "male dominance and female submission were the prerequisites of a civilized society" (qtd. in Morrison 5). On what grounds should we defend such a writer? Contemporary readers will likely find Besant's support for imperial expansion equally troubling. He earned a living as secretary to the Palestine Exploration Fund, a group initially interested in geography and later involved in expanding British imperial and military reach in the Levant. We might also remember Henry James's public rebuke of Besant's notion that the craft of writing could be taught. James believed that writing was an organic process, not a skill that could be subjected to mechanical instruction. As Morrison recalls, "For many decades critics have aligned themselves with James's view" (4). Why then should contemporary readers want to remember a writer who championed patriarchal dominance, imperial expansion, and the mechanical reduction of the creative process? In twelve chapters and an introduction, Morrison and the other contributors persuasively argue for re-evaluating Besant's career not only because his work is significant to the study of Victorian literature, but also as a window into Victorian concerns about gender, imperial ideologies, and the profession of writing. Morrison's helpful introduction makes two important points. First, he claims that Besant should not be read as a one-dimensional figure with simplistic political views. While he may appear backward-looking in one political arena, he was forward-thinking in others. It is therefore unhelpful and inaccurate to pigeonhole Besant for persistent stodginess. Morrison's second point highlights the interconnectedness of Besant's social activism and the professionalization of authorship. As he explains, "contemporary critics and historians interested in Besant's activities as a social reformer have tended to bracket his efforts to professionalize authorship; conversely, those interested in his work in founding of the Society of Authors and as an advocate for copyright have tended to relegate to footnotes his philanthropic pursuits" (7). One of the volume's strengths is that such concerns are presented alongside one another or shown to have been integrated in Besant's working life throughout his career. The volume is divided into four sections. The first part, "Literary Collaborations," focuses on Besant's work with James Rice and Wilkie Collins. In some cases, Besant worked side-by-side with his collaborators, weaving together disparate visions or generating new ideas through the cowriting process. Kirsty Bunting's opening essay makes a strong [End Page 493] case for situating Besant's collaborations in the context of the declining Romantic-era "constructs of authorship" (20). Richard Storer's essay explores the nature and effects of Besant's collaboration with Rice, noting that "most of the later narratives [by Besant] are reworkings of ideas already explored in the earlier" material written in collaboration with Rice (49). Discerning which ideas belong to either writer is ultimately futile—a point elaborated in the chapter by Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox regarding Collins's Blind Love (1890). Collins died before finishing the novel and Besant was called in to write the ending. In...