''The Opera'' is an 1832 novel by the British writer

Catherine Gore Catherine Grace Frances Gore (''née'' Moody; 12 February 1798 – 29 January 1861), was a prolific English novelist and dramatist. The daughter of a wine merchant from Retford, Nottinghamshire, she became among the best known of the silver fork ...

, originally published in three volumes. It is part of the tradition 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-1 ...

s focusing on British

high society High society, sometimes simply Society, is the behavior and lifestyle of people with the highest levels of wealth, power, fame and social status. It includes their related affiliations, social events and practices. Upscale social clubs were open ...

of the later

Regency era The Regency era of British history is commonly understood as the years between and 1837, although the official regency for which it is named only spanned the years 1811 to 1820. King George III first suffered debilitating illness in the lat ...

. One contemporary reviewer launched a critical attack on its elitism, and lack of realism about everyday lives. The novel makes many references to the ongoing debate about the

Reform Bill The Reform Acts (or Reform Bills, before they were passed) are legislation enacted in the United Kingdom in the 19th and 20th century to enfranchise new groups of voters and to redistribute seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the U ...

.''London Voices, 1820–1840'' p.253

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. Ohio State University Press, 1994. * Murphy, Paul Thomas. ''Toward a Working-class Canon: Literary Criticism in British Working-class Periodicals, 1816-1858''. *Parker, Roger & Rutherford, Susan. ''London Voices, 1820–1840: Vocal Performers, Practices, Histories''. University of Chicago Press, 2019. * Rosa, Matthew Whiting. ''The Silver-fork School: Novels of Fashion Preceding Vanity Fair''. Columbia University Press, 1936. * Wilson, Cheryl A. ''Fashioning the Silver Fork Novel''. Routledge, 2015. 1832 British novels Novels set in London Novels by Catherine Gore Henry Colburn books {{1830s-novel-stub