Robert Bage, Man as He Is

Pam Perkins (University of Manitoba)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1792 - 1796

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

By the time that he wrote

Man As He Is

in 1792, Robert Bage had established a reputation as an urbane, witty author who stretched the limits of what was already a decidedly baggy genre. Bage’s contemporary and fellow radical, Thomas Holcroft, greeted

Man As He Is

in his

Monthly Review

article (n.s., vol. 10 [March 1793], 297-302) by praising the book’s excursions “through the regions of metaphysics, politics, and even theology,” regions that he thought sadly neglected by “the young ladies who at present write novels.” Holcroft’s dismissive comments about young lady novelists suggest another key factor in Bage’s contemporary reception: he was perceived, like his near-contemporaries Fielding and Smollet (who both died much younger), as writing novels that could appeal to…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1183 words

Citation: Perkins, Pam. "Man as He Is". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3753, accessed 19 April 2024.]

Save this article