(Paperback)

We think we know what upward mobility stories are about - virtuous striving justly rewarded, or unprincipled social climbing regrettably unpunished. This book overturns these assumptions and exposes a hidden tradition of erotic social interdependence at the heart of the literary canon.

(Hardback)

Reinterpreting novels by figures such as Balzac, Stendhal, Charlotte Bronte, Dickens, Dreiser, Wells, Doctorow, and Ishiguro, along with a number of films, this book shows how deeply the material and erotic desires of upwardly mobile characters are intertwined with the aid they receive from some sort of benefactor or mentor.