Publisher's Synopsis
This work discusses ways in which money is treated in a range of literary texts, and makes cross-references to non-fictional writings on economics and politics.;Drawing on the writings of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Defoe, Swift, Austen, Scott, Gaskell, Morris, Tressell, Forster, Mandeville, Adam Smith, Marx and Weber, the book considers this double paradox: literary texts, which are supposed to offer truths and insights, often propagate economic myths and mystifications; and the non-fictional writings on economics and politics, which claim to be empirical, are repeatedly infiltrated by literary devices, so that they too "tell stories".;Particular topics include: Jews and usury - the anti-Semitism of Chaucer and Shakespeare; "negative mystification" - providential bequests; theories or myths of labour and value; and the cashless Utopia. The discussion is addressed to those readers who wish to examine literary texts in historical contexts.
