The Victorian Novel (Cambridge Contexts in Literature)

By Barbara Dennis

Book Overview

Critical introductions to a range of literary topics and genres. This book invites readers to reflect on the whole phenomenon of the Victorian novel and its role in dissecting and informing the society which produced it. The reasons for the growth of the novel and its spectacular success is also examined and discussed. Texts and extracts from a selection of Victorian novels and essays, including some material that readers will be unfamiliar with, help to provide a broader understanding of the range of Victorian fiction. Authors include: Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Anthony Trollope and Max Beerbohm.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521775957
• ISBN13: 9780521775953
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 130 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 16 to 19 years
• Grade Range: Grade 11 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

A fascinating discussion!

THE VICTORIAN NOVEL is a fascinating discussion of the themes and issues occurring in Victorian novels, with special attention to the works by key novelists of the time - Dickens, Gaskell, Eliot, the Brontes, Thackeray, Trollope and more (but especially the early rather than later Victorians). Highly organized and scholarly but readable, the book is divided into a number of sections: Approaching the Novel, Approaching the Texts, Texts and Extracts, Critical Approaches, How to Write about the Victorian Novel (very useful to students), and Resources. Each issue is addressed in the historical context of the time, providing the reader with considerable understanding of the shifts in consciousness among writers and readers during this term, and the precipitating influences.