Literature and Inequality

Understanding high-end inequality through great works of literature

Great works of literature, by the likes of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton, can help us to better understand the social ramifications of high-end inequality – not just in the authors' eras but today.

The consequences of high-end inequality seep into almost every aspect of human life: it is not just a question for economists. In this highly accessible new work, Professor Shaviro takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore how great works of literature have provided some of the most incisive accounts of inequality and its social and cultural ramifications over the last two centuries. Through perceptive close readings of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Edith Wharton, among others, he not only demonstrates how these accounts are still relevant today, but how they can illuminate our understanding of our current situation and broaden our own perspective beyond the merely economic.