This lively and original book examines the notion that the realist novel reinforces existing social structures through its techniques of representation. Michiel Heyns depicts the nineteenth-century literary scapegoat--the ostensible victim of the expulsive pressure of plot--as begetter of an alternative vision, questioning the values apparently upheld by the novel as a whole. Expulsion and the Nineteenth-Century Novel investigates this idea through close and illuminating readings of five realist novels of the nineteenth century: Mansfield Park, Our Mutual Friend, Daniel Deronda, Lord Jim, and The Golden Bowl. This book places the realist novel in the center of current debates, while yet respecting the power of literature to anticipate the insights of its critics.