{"product_id":"9780801877872","title":"The Art of Alibi: English Law Courts and the Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Art of Alibi\u003c\/i\u003e, Jonathan Grossman reconstructs the relation of the novel to nineteenth-century law courts. During the Romantic era, courthouses and trial scenes frequently found their way into the plots of English novels. As Grossman states, \"by the Victorian period, these scenes represented a powerful intersection of narrative form with a complementary and competing structure for storytelling.\" He argues that the courts, newly fashioned as a site in which to orchestrate voices and reconstruct stories, arose as a cultural presence influencing the shape of the English novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWeaving examinations of novels such as William Godwin's \u003ci\u003eCaleb Williams,\u003c\/i\u003e Mary Shelley's \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein,\u003c\/i\u003e and Charles Dickens's \u003ci\u003eThe Pickwick Papers\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eOliver Twist,\u003c\/i\u003e along with a reading of the new Royal Courts of Justice, Grossman charts the exciting changes occurring within the novel, especially crime fiction, that preceded and led to the invention of the detective mystery in the 1840s. \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Johns Hopkins University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47300743659760,"sku":"9780801877872","price":47.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780801877872_p0.jpg?v=1763726014","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780801877872","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}