Ornament, the Novel, and the Victorian Real

"All real art," wrote William Morris, "is ornamental." If Morris is right, then ornament is not, as some would have it, a triviality, a sign of "want," or a crime. Instead, Ornament, the Novel, and the Victorian Real argues for the many and varied ways in which the novel is indebted to ornament. Victorians and Victorianist scholars have compared the novel to "fine" arts such as Dutch genre paintin...