SOURCE: "'Preaching to the Nerves': Psychological Disorder in Sensation Fiction," in A Question of Identity: Women, Science, and Literature, edited by Marina Benjamin, Rutgers University Press, 1993, pp. 192-222.
In the following essay, Shuttleworth examines how Victorian sensation fiction exploited the language and concepts of psychology, and why the novels were so heavily criticized. Shuttleworth maintains that the novels challenged the Victorian "culture of control" by emphasizing the value of "feminine 'sensation'" over the often faulty "masculine reason."
