''Yes and No'' is an 1828 novel by the British writer and politician
Lord Normanby
Marquess of Normanby is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in 1694 in the Peerage of England in favour of John Sheffield, 3rd Earl of Mulg ...
, originally published in two volumes. It was part of the popular genre of
silver fork novel
Fashionable novels, also called silver-fork novels, were a 19th-century genre of English literature that depicted the lives of the upper class and the aristocracy.
Era
The silver-fork novels dominated the English literature market from the mid-18 ...
s which focused on the British
upper classes in the later
Regency era
The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. George III of the United Kingdom, King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 18 ...
. It was his second published work following ''
Matilda
Matilda or Mathilda may refer to:
Animals
* Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder
* Matilda (horse) (1824–1846), British Thoroughbred racehorse
* Matilda, a dog of the professional wrestling tag-team The ...
'' in 1825. The novel focuses heavily on the politics of Britain in the late 1820s, focusing on three main protagonists and examining the
Whigs,
liberal Tories, and
Ultra-Tories.
Synopsis
During an election to
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, the stridently
radical
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
*Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
Whig Oakley stands against the liberal
Canningite Tory Germain. Thanks to dealmaking organised by the
rakish
In a historical context, a rake (short for rakehell, analogous to "hellraiser") was a man who was habituated to immoral conduct, particularly womanizing. Often, a rake was also prodigal, wasting his (usually inherited) fortune on gambling, w ...
dandy Fitzalbert, Germain is elected thanks to a deal with the Ultra-Tory Steadman and his
reactionary
In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...
supporters. Oakley then inherits his uncle's estate and titles and enters Parliament as a
lord
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...
, but is killed in a
duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules.
During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...
with Fitzalbert. Ultimately Germain makes a happy marriage with a politically shrewd wife and enjoys a successful career in Parliament, succeeding where Oakley through his hot-heated manner has ultimately failed.
[Copeland p.221]
References
Bibliography
* Adburgham, Alison. ''Silver Fork Society: Fashionable Life and Literature from 1814 to 1840''. Faber & Faber, 2012.
* Copeland, Edward. ''The Silver Fork Novel: Fashionable Fiction in the Age of Reform''. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
1828 British novels
Novels set in London
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