A Concise Companion to the Victorian Novel

This volume presents fresh approaches to classic Victorian fiction from 1830 to 1900. Consisting of a series of original essays written by prominent specialists in the field, it opens up the cultural world in which the Victorian novel was written and read. The 12 contributors provide new perspectives on how Victorian fiction relates to a range of important contemporary contexts, including class, sexuality, empire, psychology, law, visual culture, biology and the conditions of authorship. Their contributions cross traditional disciplinary boundaries, enabling readers to understand the Victorian novel’s complex engagements with diverse aspects of nineteenth–century society.

Acknowledgements. List Of Illustrations. Notes On Contributors. Introduction: Francis O’Gorman (University of Leeds). 1. ‘The Sun And Moon Were Made To Give Them Light’: Empire In The Victorian Novel: Cannon Schmitt (Wayne State University). 2. ‘Seeing Is Believing’?: Visuality And Victorian Fiction: Kate Flint (Rutgers University) . 3. ‘The Boundaries Of Social Intercourse’: Class In The Victorian Novel: James Eli Adams (Cornell University). 4. Legal Subjects, Legal Objects: The Law And Victorian Fiction: Clare Pettitt (Newnham College, Cambridge). 5. ‘The Withering Of The Individual’: Psychology In The Victorian Novel: Nicholas Dames (Columbia University). 6. ‘Telling Of My Weekly Doings’: The Material Culture Of The Victorian Novel: Mark Turner (King′s College, University of London). 7. ‘Farewell Poetry And Aerial Flights’: The Function Of The Author And Victorian Fiction: Richard Salmon (University of Leeds). 8. Everywhere And Nowhere: Sexuality In The Victorian Novel: Carolyn Dever (Vanderbilt University). 9. ‘One Of The Larger Lost Continents’: Religion In The Victorian Novel: Michael Wheeler. 10. ‘The Differences Between Human Beings’: Biology In The Victorian Novel: Angelique Richardson (University of Exeter). 11. ‘One Great Confederation?’: Europe In The Victorian Novel: John Rignall (University of Warwick). 12. ‘A Long Deep Sob Of That Mysterious Wondrous Happiness That Is One With Pain’: Emotion In The Victorian Novel: Francis O’Gorman (University of Leeds). Index

Francis O’Gorman is Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Leeds. He has written widely on Victorian poetry and non–fictional prose, including the books John Ruskin (1999), Late Ruskin: New Contexts (2001), and the Victorian Novel (2002) in the Blackwell Critical Guide Series, and also co–edited the collection Ruskin and Gender (2002). He has published on Milton, Robert Browning, Michael Field, Charles Kingsley, Robert Frost, Henrietta Huxley, Victorian agnosticism, Victorian masculinities, and co–edited a collection of essays on Margaret Oliphant (1999) and on Landscape, Writing and Community (2001). His most recent book, Victorian Poetry: An Annotated Anthology , was published by Blackwell in 2004.

"[T]his book succeeds in presenting a representative selection of historicist critical thinking on panorama of themes of the novel during the period of what was, arguably, this literary form′s greatest achievement. It will be a stimulating introduction for the advanced undergraduate with an interest in the nineteenth century, and a useful lead for the postgraduate student working in the field of Victorian studies on any one of the numerous taught programmes currently on offer." Reference Reviews