Skip to main content

  • HOME
  • CURRENT CONTENT
  • ALL CONTENT
  • SUBMIT
  • ABOUT
    • Journal
    • Editorial
  • INFO FOR
    • Librarians
    • Authors
    • Reprints and Permissions
    • Subscriptions and Single Issues
  • MORE
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us

  • Login

  • Advanced search

  • Login
Advanced Search
  • HOME
  • CURRENT CONTENT
  • ALL CONTENT
  • SUBMIT
  • ABOUT
    • Journal
    • Editorial
  • INFO FOR
    • Librarians
    • Authors
    • Reprints and Permissions
    • Subscriptions and Single Issues
  • MORE
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us
Nineteenth-Century Literature

the finest scholarship in the field since 1945

  • Articles
Debt, Taxes, and Reform in Walter Scott’s Count Robert of Paris
Brian Goldberg
NINETEEN CENT LIT, Vol. 71 No. 3, December 2016; (pp. 343-368) DOI: 10.1525/ncl.2016.71.3.343
Brian Goldberg
University of Minnesota
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
PreviousNext
Loading

Abstract

Brian Goldberg, “Debt, Taxes, and Reform in Walter Scott’s Count Robert of Paris” (pp. 343–368)

Walter Scott’s Count Robert of Paris (1831) treats “debt” in a way determined by the author’s response to the Reform Crisis of 1830–1832. Scott’s solution to the reformist impulse was the reintroduction of the income tax. He believed that an income tax would give the nation’s elites an opportunity to acknowledge their duties and contribute their fair share toward the payment of the national war debt, thus stabilizing the economy and eliminating a crucial motive for reform legislation. Count Robert of Paris reimagines this solution by translating the nation’s relationship to government debt into a system of personal indebtedness. While the novel’s main characters, the Anglo-Saxon mercenary Hereward and the Crusader Count Robert, assume their roles in a working hierarchy through the assumption and discharge of debt, these developments take place in a dystopian fictional world that reflects Scott’s apprehensions about reform. In Count Robert’s late-eleventh-century Constantinople, leaders evade responsibility, justice is inscrutable or impossible to achieve, and the city is populated by Crusaders and Byzantines who are unwilling or unable to recognize or pay what they owe.

Keywords:
  • Walter Scott
  • Count Robert of Paris
  • debt
  • taxes
  • Reform Act of 1832
  • © 2016 by The Regents of the University of California

Log in using your username and password

Enter your Nineteenth-Century Literature username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
Forgot your user name or password?

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.
If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.

PreviousNext
Back to top

Vol. 71 No. 3, December 2016

Nineteenth-Century Literature: 71 (3)
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Cover (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Front Matter (PDF)
eTOC Alert

RSSRSS Icon

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Nineteenth-Century Literature.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Debt, Taxes, and Reform in Walter Scott’s Count Robert of Paris
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Nineteenth-Century Literature
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Nineteenth-Century Literature web site.
Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Debt, Taxes, and Reform in Walter Scott’s Count Robert of Paris
Brian Goldberg
NINETEEN CENT LIT, Vol. 71 No. 3, December 2016; (pp. 343-368) DOI: 10.1525/ncl.2016.71.3.343
Brian Goldberg
University of Minnesota
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Debt, Taxes, and Reform in Walter Scott’s Count Robert of Paris
Brian Goldberg
NINETEEN CENT LIT, Vol. 71 No. 3, December 2016; (pp. 343-368) DOI: 10.1525/ncl.2016.71.3.343
Brian Goldberg
University of Minnesota
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Technorati logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
View Full Page PDF
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Top
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

  • The Limits of Orthodoxy in a Secular Age: The Strange Case of Marie Corelli
  • Humble Humbugs and Good Frauds: Harold Frederic, Christian Science, and the Anglo-American Professions
  • “Altogether a Different Thing”: The Emerging Social Sciences and the New Universalisms of Religious Belief in Rudyard Kipling’s Kim
Show more Articles

Similar Articles

FIND US Facebook Account LinkRSS Feeds LinkTwitter Account LinkInstagram Account LinkLinkedin Account LinkYoutube Account LinkEmail Link

Customer Service

  • Reprints and Permissions
  • Contact

UC Press

  • About UC Press

Navigate

  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Editorial
  • Contact

Content

  • Current Issue
  • All Content

Info For

  • Librarians
  • Authors
  • Subscriptions and Single Issues

Copyright © 2019 by the Regents of the University of California  Privacy   Accessibility