Introduction

In 1986, Jane Miller published Women Writing about Men, which made an initial foray into the examination of the depiction of male characters in literature from a female author’s perspective. She states that “writers from Maria Edgeworth onwards have found ways to divert that [marriage-plot] trajectory and even to propose alternative time scales and alternative endings. Women have ongoing stories too and within what might be termed the “feminine plot”, as opposed to the “marriage plot”, the textual observation of men does not always end with the ringing of wedding bells. The traditionally male spheres of economics, science, and politics are interrogated by Helena Goodwyn in relation to the impact of Malthusian theory on Dinah Mulock Craik’s representations of masculine self-control in John Halifax, Gentleman. Goodwyn considers how the male narrative voice in the text challenges the assumption of sentimental fiction, focusing on the relationship between Phineas Fletcher and John Halifax.