'A Beautiful Fiend'

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The importance of physical appearance as one of the narratological techniques of characterization tends to be overlooked in literary criticism.However, this method of indirect representation of the characters was widely employed by the novelists of the 19th century and played a significant role in helping the readers at the very beginning of the novel to interpret tentatively the protagonists, to make initial predictions about their fate or to speculate about their hidden qualities. Maria Dorn analyzes the way physical appearance was used to characterize the protagonists in the Victorian sensational novels. Her thesis is that in this genre the way a character looks is essential for interpretation and is meant by the novelist to be an encoded clue to his/her inner personality. Playing upon physiognomic commonplaces as well as on more subtle mythological and cultural associations, sensational novels frequently used physicality of the characters to express the inexpressible and to create a strongly visual sensation. Maria looks at the wide range of novels written by the three titans of the sensationalists: Wilkie Collins, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Mrs. Wood.