“Seldom does one read a monograph as well conceived, thoroughly researched, textually interconnected, and persuasively written as Heidi Pennington’s Creating Identity in the Victorian Fictional Autobiography—a brilliant book.”—Linda M. Lewis, Bethany College, author of Dickens, His Parables, and His Reader
"Pennington's book compellingly makes the case for the 'fictional autobiography' as a form that can tell us much about the ways in which the Victorians understood the concepts of identity, character, and fictionality. She details how Victorian authors understood personal identity as narratively constructed—long before postmodern writers. The book offers exciting new readings of well-known texts like David Copperfield and Jane Eyre and will be of interest to scholars working in both narrative theory and Victorian studies."—Tara MacDonald, University of Idaho, author of The new Man, Masculinity and Marriage in the Victorian Novel
"There is much here and throughout the study to stimulate our thinking about how we understand both fictional narrative and human character itself. With its careful positioning with respect to existing criticism and its strongly argued thesis, Creating Identity in the Victorian Fictional Autobiography makes a thought-provoking contribution to Victorian studies."—Dickens Quarterly
