Reginald Dalton is an 1823 comedy novel by the Scottish writer John Gibson Lockhart originally published in three volumes by William Blackwood in Edinburgh and Thomas Cadell in London.[1] It was one of four novels Lockhart published in the early 1820s, including Valerius (1821) and Adam Blair (1822). It takes place around Oxford University which Lockhart had himself attended.[2] It helped to launch the genre of "Oxford novels" which focus on the development of a young student.[3]

Reginald Dalton
AuthorJohn Gibson Lockhart
LanguageEnglish
GenreComedy
PublisherWilliam Blackwood
Publication date
1823
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint

Synopsis

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Oxford High Street by Turner.

Reginald Dalton, a naïve young vicar's son, arrives at Oxford to study but soon falls in with a bad crowd and runs into debt. His father can scarcely afford to support him and he becomes a servitor, leading to snobbish mockery and exclusion from those who had once been his friends. He ends up fighting a duel.

References

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  1. ^ Bevan p.30
  2. ^ Brock & Curthoys p.162
  3. ^ Dougill p.92-93

Bibliography

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  • Bevan, David. University Fiction. Rodopi, 1990.
  • Brock, Michael G. & Curthoys, Mark C. Nineteenth-century Oxford, Part 1. Clarendon Press, 1997
  • Dougill, John. Oxford in English Literature: The Making, and Undoing, of 'the English Athens'. University of Michigan Press, 1998.