Women and Gift Exchange in Eighteenth-Century Fiction

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This book analyzes how major novelists of the long 18C centered on the theory and practice of gift exchange, challenging the idea that capitalist discourse was the dominant influence on the development of prose fiction. It explores how the economy of obligation shaped writers' portrayals of class and gender identity, property, and community, foregrounding donation, reciprocity, indebtedness, and gratitude as it investigates the conflicts between the market and moral economies and analyzes women's position at their center. As this study reveals, the exchanges that 18C fiction prescribed for women confirm the continuing importance of gift transactions in an increasingly commercial culture.