Cirrus@Austlit

Sheridan challenges negative evaluations of Human Toll that measure the success of the novel against the well-made realist novel. Sheridan argues that the novel is not disguised autobiography, but employs the narrative devices of late nineteenth century women's fiction while subverting certain elements of that genre. Human Toll destabilizes the conventions of the heroic women's novel, producing a narrative that operates in a Gothic/tragic mode.