My favorite chapter in my dissertation, titled “Reading with a Tender Rapture,” explores the relationship between Ik Marvel, the sentimental narrator of Reveries of a Bachelor, and his readers. I examine fan letters written to Marvel (or to Donald Grant Mitchell, the author–readers often assumed that Ik was a real person), marginal annotations in copies of the books, and reimaginings of Reveries, including by Emily Dickinson. Reveries, one the most significant bestsellers in 19th C America, moved so many readers because of what I call “detached intimacy”–readers felt profound emotional identification with Ik Marvel, but at the same time could remain a safe distance from him, as reading is associated with reverie. I rather like the term “detached intimacy” and think that it might have wider application–for instance, perhaps many of the personal relationships formed through message boards, social networking applications, virtual worlds, etc. could be considered “detached intimacy,” existing in the space of the imagination.
Since I am interested in experimenting with text analysis tools and in bringing my attention to assumptions in my own argument that I might not otherwise be aware of, I fed my article “Reading with a Tender Rapture” (an improved version of my diss chapter) into TAPOR. Here are the results (using Glasgow stop words):
Word count:
| Summary: There are 3518 unique words other than those in the stop list, there are 8547 words other than those in the stop list. There are 16266 words in total including the stop words. |
||
|---|---|---|
| Words | Distribution | Count |
| mitchell |  |
140 |
| reveries |  |
121 |
| ik |  |
108 |
| readers |  |
91 |
| reading |  |
80 |
| letters |  |
66 |
| bachelor |  |
56 |
| book |  |
54 |
| marvel |  |
50 |
| dickinson |  |
47 |
| reader | 44 | |
| carrie | 41 | |
| intimacy | 36 | |
| feeling | 36 | |
| mitchell’s | 35 | |
| author | 33 | |
| new | 33 | |
| sentimental | 33 | |
| women | 33 | |
| dream | 29 | |
| life | 28 | |
| detached | 28 | |
| letter | 26 | |
| press | 26 | |
| heart | 25 | |
| emily | 25 | |
| york | 24 | |
| papers | 24 | |
| donald | 24 | |
| fantasy | 24 | |
| work | 24 | |
| read | 24 | |
| university | 24 | |
| dreams | 23 | |
| narrator | 22 | |
| american | 21 | |
| grant | 21 | |
| real | 20 | |
| writing | 20 | |
| reverie | 20 | |
| relationship | 19 | |
| fantasies | 19 | |
| domestic | 19 | |
| fan | 18 | |
| man | 18 | |
| world | 18 | |
| literature | 18 | |
| distance | 17 | |
| sense | 16 | |
| ik’s | 16 | |
| men | 16 | |
| power | 16 | |
| suggests | 16 | |
| wrote | 16 | |
| love | 16 | |
| 1851 | 15 | |
| family | 15 | |
| correspondents | 15 | |
| literary | 15 | |
| just | 15 | |
| private | 15 | |
| according | 14 | |
| history | 14 | |
| edition | 14 | |
| america | 14 | |
| dreaming | 14 | |
| “the | 14 | |
| female | 14 | |
| like | 14 | |
| 1852 | 13 | |
| nineteenth-century | 13 | |
| books | 13 | |
| anonymous | 13 | |
| text | 13 | |
| male | 13 | |
| know | 13 | |
| home | 12 | |
| study | 12 | |
| experience | 12 | |
| young | 12 | |
| susan | 12 | |
| fans | 12 | |
| away | 12 | |
| father | 12 | |
| bachelor’s | 12 | |
| imagination | 11 | |
| make | 11 | |
| marvel’s | 11 | |
| feelings | 11 | |
| sympathy | 11 | |
| social | 11 | |
| ryan | 11 | |
| imaginative | 11 | |
| published | 11 | |
| personal | 11 | |
| “you” | 10 | |
| dickinson’s | 10 | |
| identity | 10 | |
| words | 10 | |
| wction | 10 | |
| write | 10 | |
| ideal | 10 | |
| pleasure | 10 | |
| culture | 10 | |
| lives | 10 | |
| wrst | 10 | |
| ohio | 10 | |
| old | 9 | |
| mother | 9 | |
| marriage | 9 | |
| thomas | 9 | |
| feb | 9 | |
| audience | 9 | |
| spinster | 9 | |
| embraced | 9 | |
| dreamer | 9 | |
| copy | 9 | |
| represented | 9 | |
| emotional | 9 | |
| form | 9 | |
| woman | 9 | |
| figure | 8 | |
| unmarried | 8 | |
| time | 8 | |
| romance | 8 | |
| describes | 8 | |
| austin | 8 | |
| responses | 8 | |
| bachelorhood | 8 | |
| ways | 8 | |
| rhetoric | 8 | |
| domesticity | 8 | |
| cultural | 8 | |
| enigma | 8 | |
| married | 8 | |
| children | 8 | |
| desire | 8 | |
| readers’ | 8 | |
| language | 8 | |
| thought | 8 | |
| making | 8 | |
| become | 8 | |
| evidence | 8 | |
| manhood | 8 | |
| authors | 8 | |
| control | 8 | |
| critics | 8 | |
| reality | 8 | |
| questions | 8 | |
| written | 8 | |
| public | 8 | |
| correspondent | 8 | |
| imagined | 8 | |
| 1886 | 7 | |
| “i | 7 | |
| library | 7 | |
| suggesting | 7 | |
| instance | 7 | |
| feel | 7 | |
| solitary | 7 | |
| snyder | 7 | |
| fiction | 7 | |
| otter | 7 | |
| self | 7 | |
| present | 7 | |
| identiwcation | 7 | |
| wanted | 7 | |
| different | 7 | |
| held | 7 | |
| great | 7 | |
| writers | 7 | |
| mary | 7 | |
| use | 7 | |
| “you | 7 | |
| leisure | 7 | |
| response | 7 | |
| example | 7 | |
| scribner’s | 7 | |
| creative | 7 | |
| antebellum | 7 | |
| charles | 7 | |
| texts | 7 | |
| metaphor | 7 | |
| instead | 7 | |
| focuses | 7 | |
| argues | 7 | |
| urbana | 7 | |
| vision | 6 | |
| uncle | 6 | |
| wife | 6 | |
| used | 6 | |
| particular | 6 | |
| hopes | 6 | |
| mind | 6 | |
| age | 6 | |
| 1853 | 6 | |
| audiences | 6 | |
| popular | 6 | |
| means | 6 | |
| little | 6 | |
| zboray | 6 | |
| henry | 6 | |
| barbara | 6 | |
| novels | 6 | |
| appeal | 6 | |
| early | 6 | |
| rhetorical | 6 | |
| values | 6 | |
| dec | 6 | |
| important | 6 | |
| patrick | 6 | |
| able | 6 | |
| oxley | 6 | |
| asserts | 6 | |
| understand | 6 | |
| characters | 6 | |
| “a | 6 | |
| suggest | 6 | |
| actual | 6 | |
| beautiful | 6 | |
| book’s | 6 | |
| boundaries | 6 | |
| using | 6 | |
| persona | 6 | |
| authority | 6 | |
| smallwood | 6 | |
| wnd | 6 | |
| needs | 6 | |
| ed | 6 | |
| conscious | 6 | |
| view | 6 | |
| thompson | 6 | |
| oct | 6 | |
| likewise | 6 | |
| william | 6 | |
| received | 6 | |
| inspired | 6 | |
| tom’s | 5 | |
| century | 5 | |
| ibid | 5 | |
| acknowledged | 5 | |
| imagining | 5 | |
| identiwed | 5 | |
| sent | 5 | |
| focus | 5 | |
| saw | 5 | |
| voice | 5 | |
| introduction | 5 | |
| marry | 5 | |
| uses | 5 | |
| art | 5 | |
| really | 5 | |
| connection | 5 | |
| shaped | 5 | |
| direct | 5 | |
| novel | 5 | |
| narrative | 5 | |
| melville | 5 | |
| long | 5 | |
| wants | 5 | |
| claimed | 5 | |
| future | 5 | |
| insisting | 5 | |
| perspective | 5 | |
| day | 5 | |
| wish | 5 | |
| notes | 5 | |
| compelling | 5 | |
| shared | 5 | |
| cabin | 5 | |
| possible | 5 | |
| friends | 5 | |
| image | 5 | |
| expression | 5 | |
| think | 5 | |
| james | 5 | |
| remain | 5 | |
| sensibility | 5 | |
| brings | 5 | |
| tension | 5 | |
| come | 5 | |
| mysterious | 5 | |
| nell | 5 | |
| romantic | 5 | |
| city | 5 | |
| describing | 5 | |
| beloved | 5 | |
| comments | 5 | |
| holton | 5 | |
| second | 5 | |
| brodhead | 5 | |
| editions | 5 | |
| packet | 5 | |
| reprint | 5 | |
| revised | 5 | |
| margins | 5 | |
| correspondence | 5 | |
| “by | 5 | |
| greater | 5 | |
| independence | 5 | |
| continued | 5 | |
| acts | 5 | |
| makes | 5 | |
| passage | 5 | |
| way | 5 | |
| wre | 5 | |
| true | 5 | |
| beinecke | 5 | |
| bible | 5 | |
| timon | 5 | |
| asserted | 5 | |
| virginia | 5 | |
| detachment | 5 | |
| everyday | 5 | |
| women’s | 5 | |
| deep | 5 | |
| hawthorne | 5 | |
| reviews | 5 | |
| 1850 | 5 | |
| yale | 5 | |
| set | 4 | |
| end | 4 | |
| samuel | 4 | |
| escapist | 4 | |
| past | 4 | |
| productive | 4 | |
| lecture | 4 | |
| presented | 4 | |
| address | 4 | |
| times | 4 | |
| message | 4 | |
| attention | 4 | |
| knot | 4 | |
| seen | 4 | |
| artistic | 4 | |
| truth | 4 | |
| terms | 4 | |
| dreamed | 4 | |
| moved | 4 | |
| signiwcant | 4 | |
| practices | 4 | |
| insisted | 4 | |
| became | 4 | |
| wgure | 4 | |
| model | 4 | |
| takes | 4 | |
| privacy | 4 | |
| constructed | 4 | |
| inner | 4 | |
| publishing | 4 | |
| karr | 4 | |
| authorship | 4 | |
| collection | 4 | |
| reveals | 4 | |
| close | 4 | |
| davies | 4 | |
| return | 4 | |
| cambridge | 4 | |
| spirit | 4 | |
| ultimately | 4 | |
| called | 4 | |
| conflict | 4 | |
| tone | 4 | |
| creation | 4 | |
| eyes | 4 | |
| face | 4 | |
| sons | 4 | |
| essay | 4 | |
| reviewer | 4 | |
| act | 4 | |
| author’s | 4 | |
| aunt | 4 | |
| illustrations | 4 | |
| shape | 4 | |
| annotations | 4 | |
| 1850s | 4 | |
| narrator’s | 4 | |
| took | 4 | |
| insists | 4 | |
| directly | 4 | |
| thoughts | 4 | |
| responded | 4 | |
| mode | 4 | |
| comes | 4 | |
| youth | 4 | |
| quite | 4 | |
| having | 4 | |
| mood | 4 | |
| pose | 4 | |
| create | 4 | |
| paper | 4 | |
| eye | 4 | |
| woman’s | 4 | |
| scenes | 4 | |
| manuscript | 4 | |
| richard | 4 | |
| practical | 4 | |
| fact | 4 | |
| remains | 4 | |
| ability | 4 | |
| touchstone | 4 | |
| lead | 4 | |
| elisha | 4 | |
| right | 4 | |
| single | 4 | |
| attempt | 4 | |
| experiences | 4 | |
| valentine | 4 | |
| based | 4 | |
| value | 4 | |
| brought | 4 | |
| illustrated | 4 | |
| relation | 4 | |
| poems | 4 | |
| appear | 4 | |
| examine | 4 | |
| sparked | 4 | |
| word | 4 | |
| works | 4 | |
| taste | 4 | |
| identities | 4 | |
| pen | 4 | |
| chicago | 4 | |
| society | 4 | |
| signiwcance | 4 | |
| represent | 4 | |
| approach | 4 | |
| alternative | 4 | |
| soul | 4 | |
| oxford | 4 | |
| meaning | 4 | |
| twenty-four | 4 | |
| establish | 4 | |
| “what | 4 | |
| machor | 4 | |
| [new | 4 | |
| wide | 4 | |
| assume | 4 | |
| todd | 4 | |
| behind | 3 | |
| fancies | 3 | |
| offered | 3 | |
| addressed | 3 | |
| critic | 3 | |
| slipping | 3 | |
| state | 3 | |
| calls | 3 | |
| included | 3 | |
| self-control | 3 | |
| french | 3 | |
| lived | 3 | |
| laid | 3 | |
| questioned | 3 | |
| “to | 3 | |
| elizabeth | 3 | |
| holds | 3 | |
| images | 3 | |
| shifts | 3 | |
| moving | 3 | |
| seven | 3 | |
| recover | 3 | |
| scene | 3 | |
| people | 3 | |
| central | 3 | |
| comfort | 3 | |
| imagine | 3 | |
| lose | 3 | |
| savvy | 3 | |
| professional | 3 | |
| body | 3 | |
| descriptions | 3 | |
| person | 3 | |
| conditions | 3 | |
| created | 3 | |
| step | 3 | |
| hopkins | 3 | |
| speak | 3 | |
| thrill | 3 | |
| represents | 3 | |
| dorothy | 3 | |
| potential | 3 | |
| habit | 3 | |
| contrasts | 3 | |
| challenges | 3 | |
| help | 3 | |
| happy | 3 | |
| explore | 3 | |
| 412 | 3 | |
| chapter | 3 | |
| complex | 3 | |
| sentimentalism | 3 | |
| haven | 3 | |
| bound | 3 | |
| studies | 3 | |
| objects | 3 | |
| contrast | 3 | |
| prose | 3 | |
| wondered | 3 | |
| scholarship | 3 | |
| interaction | 3 | |
| includes | 3 | |
| disciplinary | 3 | |
| excellent | 3 | |
| god | 3 | |
| moral | 3 | |
| saying | 3 | |
| promotes | 3 | |
| recommended | 3 | |
| interpretive | 3 | |
| documents | 3 | |
| consciousness | 3 | |
| large | 3 | |
| determine | 3 | |
| rare | 3 | |
| holland | 3 | |
| character | 3 | |
| compared | 3 | |
| common | 3 | |
| gilbert | 3 | |
| thinking | 3 | |
| articulated | 3 | |
| pacquet | 3 | |
| creators | 3 | |
| contends | 3 | |
| offer | 3 | |
| reflect | 3 | |
| group | 3 | |
| crucial | 3 | |
| interpretation | 3 | |
| evening | 3 | |
| apart | 3 | |
| personae | 3 | |
| offers | 3 | |
| pages | 3 | |
| members | 3 | |
| wnds | 3 | |
| marital | 3 | |
| wonder | 3 | |
| douglas | 3 | |
| davidson | 3 | |
| thank | 3 | |
| desires | 3 | |
| 1988 | 3 | |
| “i” | 3 | |
| ones | 3 | |
| david | 3 | |
| names | 3 | |
| region | 3 | |
| voyeur | 3 | |
| particularly | 3 | |
| giving | 3 | |
| articulate | 3 | |
| habits | 3 | |
| waldo | 3 | |
| sympathetic | 3 | |
| solitude | 3 | |
| exchange | 3 | |
| style | 3 | |
| voices | 3 | |
| testify | 3 | |
| interpreters | 3 | |