Political Trials in an Age of Revolutions pp 163-184 | Cite as
Literary Justice: Representing the London Treason Trials of 1794
Abstract
In the wake of the French Revolution, political rhetoric and action in Britain reached a heightened state. Consequently, government surveillance of British reformers increased dramatically and resulted in political trials for sedition and treason. The most prominent of these trials were the London Treason Trials of 1794. Among the multiple narratives that engaged with the dialogue of the trials were novels that represented the injustices of surveillance, arrests, imprisonments, and prosecutions. In this essay, I examine four representative novels that grapple with the persecution of reformers and clarify some of the most important obstacles to, and limitations of, an expansion of the franchise. The novels supply a crucial part of the story of radical efforts in the 1790s and the trials that attempted to suppress and silence reformers.
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