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Literature is often touted as creating a more justÌýand empathetic world—but what happens when itÌýdoesn’t?

That’s the question explored in Nicole MansfieldÌýWright’s new book, Defending Privilege: Rights,ÌýStatus and Legal Peril in the British Novel, publishedÌýin 2020. In it, Wright explores literature from 18thandÌýearly 19th-century authors, and how it is usedÌýnot to give a voice to the voiceless but rather toÌýportray the privileged as the true victims in society.

Wright found that these narratives, rather thanÌýdisappearing, appear to have infected andÌýinfluenced modern-day society like malware inÌýunseen and unacknowledged ways—from decidingÌýwho gets to hand out justice to whose testimony isÌýbelieved in court.