FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W1964866782> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W1964866782 endingPage "118" @default.
• W1964866782 startingPage "103" @default.
• W1964866782 abstract "The (Non)Sense of an Ending: Subversive Allusion and Thematic Discontent in Roderick RandomRaymond Stephanson If there be such a thing as true happiness on earth, I enjoy it,1 says Roderick at the conclusion of the novel. And indeed the ending of Roderick Random is nothing short of paradisal: the hero marries the divine Narcissa (p. 343), is reunited with his long-lost father, is given great wealth, and returns to his Scottish birthplace, where the peasants invoked heaven to shower its choicest blessing on our heads (p. 434). Clearly the most important of these blessings is Narcissa, who not only seems to offer a haven safe and secure from a troubled world, but also seems to represent and embody the promises of an earthly paradise: O adorable Narcissa! (cried I) O miracle of beauty, love and truth ... thou wondrous pattern of all earthly perfection (p. 425). Closure in Roderick Random is about Edenic transformation in which the hero is finally allowed to repose in the still centre of harmony and perfection. Or so it would seem. There would be no problem with the ending (i.e., the last twenty pages from the point where Roderick discovers his father and gets married) were it not for the fact that the rest of the text has been about the impossibilty of such closure, about the certainty of negative transformations and the delusion ofpositive metamorphoses. Earl Strutwell's pose as father-figure and influential agent encourages Roderick and Strap to give way to our imagination ... till I arrived at the rank of a prime minister, and he [Strap] to that of my first secretary (p. 312). But appearances give way 1 Tobias Smollett, 7Ae Adventures ofRoderick Random (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981); subsequent page references are to this edition. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, Volume 1, Number 2, January 1989 104 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION to a chastening reality in which Random finds himself the carnal object of the sodomitical Earl: fatherly protector is transformed into pederast; prime minister becomes catamite. The same lesson of a downward tranformation holds true in the case of the tremendous voice of the captain in the darkened waggon, which Strap and Roderick imagined proceeded from the mouth of a giant (p. 48). Their high notion of the captain (p. 49) is rewarded by a face very much resembling that of a baboon (p. 50) and a body like a spider or grasshopper erect (p. 50). There are dozens of these appearance/reality conversions in the novel (including the inset tales of Miss Williams and Melopoyn), and they all work in the same way to show that the dream of the imagination, the psychological need and its projection, or indeed any kind of wishful thinking is doomed to a downward curve into an indifferent, discouraging, and unsavoury physical and social reality that is frequently a hell (not a heaven) on earth. Let me frame the problem another way. When Roderick becomes the fortune-hunter his first amorous advances towards a very handsome creature , genteelly dressed (p. 258) lead to a kiss, But, O heavens! instead of banqueting on the ambrosial flavour that her delicacy and complexion promised, I was almost suffocated with the steams of Geneva! (p. 259). A little later he receives a billet-doux from a Miss Sparkle, an unknown admirer whom my imagination represented as a lady of fortune, in the bloom of youth and beauty (p. 300). As the moment of interview is at hand, Roderick's doubts now vanished, the long expected port appeared , and I looked upon myself as perfectly secure of that happiness I had been in quest of so long (p. 302). But his imagined triumphs over the malice and contempt of the world (p. 303) are dashed when she enters the room: how shall I paint my situation, when I found Miss Sparkle converted into a wrinkled hag turned of seventy! (p. 303). Minutes later the needy spinster flew upon me like a tygeress, and pressed her skinny lips to mine; when ... a dose of garlic she had swallowed that morning, to dispel wind I suppose, began to operate with such a sudden explosion, that ... I lost all patience..." @default.
• W1964866782 created "2016-06-24" @default.
• W1964866782 creator A5071509784 @default.
• W1964866782 date "1989-01-01" @default.
• W1964866782 modified "2023-10-17" @default.
• W1964866782 title "The (Non)Sense of an Ending: Subversive Allusion and Thematic Discontent in Roderick Random" @default.
• W1964866782 cites W1488537313 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W1497076120 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W1502956614 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W1969450637 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W1980372152 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W1983624727 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W1996482196 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W2062502422 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W2071479457 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W2075978576 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W2082864987 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W2321848657 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W2327852201 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W2328907559 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W2330292872 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W2332260903 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W3006186033 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W607336707 @default.
• W1964866782 cites W623064536 @default.
• W1964866782 doi "https://doi.org/10.1353/ecf.1989.0026" @default.
• W1964866782 hasPublicationYear "1989" @default.
• W1964866782 type Work @default.
• W1964866782 sameAs 1964866782 @default.
• W1964866782 citedByCount "0" @default.
• W1964866782 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W1964866782 hasAuthorship W1964866782A5071509784 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C107038049 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C111472728 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C124952713 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C136815107 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C138885662 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C142362112 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C2437467 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C27206212 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C2776195157 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C2776727279 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C2777914595 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C2780620123 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C51364203 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConcept C7493553 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C107038049 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C111472728 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C124952713 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C136815107 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C138885662 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C142362112 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C2437467 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C27206212 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C2776195157 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C2776727279 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C2777914595 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C2780620123 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C51364203 @default.
• W1964866782 hasConceptScore W1964866782C7493553 @default.
• W1964866782 hasIssue "2" @default.
• W1964866782 hasLocation W19648667821 @default.
• W1964866782 hasOpenAccess W1964866782 @default.
• W1964866782 hasPrimaryLocation W19648667821 @default.
• W1964866782 hasRelatedWork W1964866782 @default.
• W1964866782 hasRelatedWork W2023786267 @default.
• W1964866782 hasRelatedWork W2171157687 @default.
• W1964866782 hasRelatedWork W2332266757 @default.
• W1964866782 hasRelatedWork W2361683365 @default.
• W1964866782 hasRelatedWork W2378901958 @default.
• W1964866782 hasRelatedWork W2748952813 @default.
• W1964866782 hasRelatedWork W2904376163 @default.
• W1964866782 hasRelatedWork W2995480687 @default.
• W1964866782 hasRelatedWork W4230197385 @default.
• W1964866782 hasVolume "1" @default.
• W1964866782 isParatext "false" @default.
• W1964866782 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W1964866782 magId "1964866782" @default.
• W1964866782 workType "article" @default.