Henry James described the novel form as a "baggy monster;" 19th-century British fiction includes some of the baggiest monsters of all. We will examine the aesthetic and political implication of attempts to capture ever-larger swathes of social reality-including domestic conflict, imperial adventure, urban filth, industrial poverty, financial scandal and camouflaged sexual intrigue--between the covers of a book. Feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytic and postcolonial theory will provide ideas which we will debate energetically. Works may include: C. Bronte's Jane Eyre, Gaskell's Mary Barton; Dicken's David Copperfield; Eliot's Middlemarch; Nightingale's Cassandra; Kipling's Kim. Requirements: lively class participation, in-class writings, one short (5-7 pp) and one long (15 pp) formal paper, final exam.