Valman, Nadia. The Jewess in Nineteenth-century British Literary Culture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2007.

 

Valman analyzes the role of the “Jewess,” an antiquated term for a Jewish woman, in Victorian literature. In Chapter 5, “Hellenist Heroines: Commerce, Culture, and the Jewess,” she looks specifically at The Way We Live Now. She argues that Melmotte’s wife, who is frequently labeled a “Jewess,” offers the feminine and redemptive economic counterpoint to the greed of her husband, representing here the Jewish male.

 

Park, Clara Claiborne. "Grease, Balance, and Point of View in the Work of Anthony Trollope." The Hudson Review 60.3 (2007): 435-444.

 

Park traces Trollope’s anti-semitism through all of his novels. She parses out the various definitions applied to Jewish men and argues that “greasiness” is an overarching characteristic; though it never applies to jewish women. She also argues that while these characters are almost always described in repellent terms, they are given some kind of redemptive quality or justification for their immorality or “greasiness." These characters fall on an ethical spectrum and are allowed to develop into fully realized characters with more complexity that the standard Jewish stereotypes typically allow.

 

Trollope, Anthony. An Autobiography by Anthony Trollope. Kessinger Publishing, 2004.

 

In Chapter XX Trollope describes the world surrounding him, his inspirations, and influences at the time he was writing The Way We Live Now. Though much of the chapter personal impressions of his characters it does provide significant information on the contemporary socio-political situation as well as his own writing style and techniques. This direct insight is gives the reader a deeper understanding of Trollope's motives in writing the novel and a heightened ability to interpret his meaning.

 

Dundes, Alan. The Blood Libel Legend: A Casebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1991.

 

This is an excellent collection delving into the legends and folk-lore that have besmirched Jewish history since the  century. It provides the historical foregrounding for many of the accusations focused on the Jews. These accusations are derived from misinterpretations of Jewish traditions, specifically around circumcision, that accuse Jews of drinking the blood of gentile children. Not only does the book chronicle the ultimate, and frequently violent, effects of these accusations, but many also propose a cause behind their origins.

 

Halberstam, Judith. "Technologies of Monstrosity: Bram Stoker's" Dracula". Victorian Studies 36.3 (1993): 333-352.

 

Halberstam presents an interesting argument in the opening of the essay. She relates her interest in the idea that Bram Stoker’s descriptions of Dracula mirror the stereotypical portrayal of Jews in Victorian fiction.  Later in the paper she discusses Gothic depictions of Jews and their relation to depictions of monsters. This article provides a detailed analysis of the “monstrous Jew” in Gothic fiction. These depictions hyperbolize the stereotypes of Jews that were already in place morphing Jews into the mutant, monstrous villains of the pieces.