Cross-examinations of law and literature: Cooper, Hawthorne, Stowe, and Melville

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Edition Details

Creators or Attribution (Responsibility): Brook Thomas, Harriet Beecher Stowe, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville
Language: English
Jurisdiction(s): England
Publication Information: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1987
Publication Type (Medium): Criticism, interpretation, etc, History
Material: Internet resource
Type: Book, Internet Resource
Series title: Cambridge studies in American literature and culture.
Permalink: https://books.lawi.org.uk/cross-examinations-of-law-and-literature-cooper-hawthorne-stowe-and-melville/ (Stable identifier)

Short Description

XII, 300 pages ; 24 cm.

Purpose and Intended Audience

Useful for students learning an area of law, Cross-examinations of law and literature: Cooper, Hawthorne, Stowe, and Melville is also useful for lawyers seeking to apply the law to issues arising in practice.

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Bibliographic information

Responsable Person: Brook Thomas.
Publication Date: 1987
Country/State: England
Number of Editions: 18 editions
First edition Date: 1987
Last edition Date: 1990
Languages: British English
Library of Congress Code: KD566
Dewey Code: 813.309355
ISBN: 0521330815 9780521330817
OCLC: 14167683

Publisher Description:

In Cross Examinations of Law and Literature Brook Thomas uses legal thought and legal practice as a lens through which to read some of the important fictions of antebellum America. The lens reflects both ways, and we learn as much about the literature in the context of contemporary legal concerns as we do about the legal ideologies that the fiction subverts or reveals. Successive chapters deal with Cooper’s Pioneers and Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables (property law and the image of the judiciary), Melville’s “Benito Cereno” and Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (slavery), Melville’s White Jacket, Pierre and “Bartleby” (worker exploitation or wage slavery), The Confidence-Man (contracts), and finally, “Billy Budd,” which examines a number of issues ILlustrative of the triumph of legal formalism after the Civil War.

Main Contents

Individuals, judges, property
The pioneers; or the sources of American legal history : a critical tale
The house of the seven gables : Hawthorne’s legal story
The house of the seven gables : Hawthorne’s romance of art
Wage and chattel slavery
“Benito Cereno” : Melville’s narrative of repression
A sentimental journey : escape from bondage in Uncle Tom’s cabin
Exploitation at home and at sea
“Bartleby, the scrivener” : fellow servants and free agents on Wall Street
Contracts and confidence men
Billy Budd and re-righting legal history
Measured forms
Ragged edges.

Summary Note

This book uses legal thought and legal practice as a lens through which to read some of the important fictions of antebellum America.

Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
An opening statement
Part I. Individuals, Judges, Property: Part II. Wage and Chattel Slavery: Part III. Billy Budd and Re-Righting Legal History: A closing statement
notes
Index.

Cross-examinations of law and literature: Cooper, Hawthorne, Stowe, and Melville

Cross-examinations of law and literature: Cooper, Hawthorne, Stowe, and Melville