Feeling “Misplaced”: An Unfashionable Imperative of Generic Conformity

In this chapter, I assess Seth’s originality through an analysis of his treatment of genre, a critical aspect of his work. Seth’s mobility across genres bespeaks a refusal to fossilize his writing, yet his work demonstrates at the same time an ostensibly unfashionable reverence for generic categories. While A Suitable Boy revives the distinct constraints of Victorian realism, Two Lives transgresses the imperative of generic conformity that governs Seth’s work, and thus constitutes an invaluable key for analyzing it.