
The Victorian Novel
Louis James(Author)
Wiley (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 24. November 2005
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-631-22627-7 (ISBN)
Description
This inspiring survey challenges conventional ways of viewing the Victorian novel.
Provides time maps and overviews of historical and social contexts.
Considers the relationship between the Victorian novel and historical, religious and bibliographic writing.
Features short biographies of over forty Victorian authors, including Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Offers close readings of over 30 key texts, among them Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), as well as key presences, such as John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Pt 1, 1676, Pt 2, 1684).
Also covers topics such as colonialism, scientific speculation, the psychic and the supernatural, and working class reading.
Provides time maps and overviews of historical and social contexts.
Considers the relationship between the Victorian novel and historical, religious and bibliographic writing.
Features short biographies of over forty Victorian authors, including Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Offers close readings of over 30 key texts, among them Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), as well as key presences, such as John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Pt 1, 1676, Pt 2, 1684).
Also covers topics such as colonialism, scientific speculation, the psychic and the supernatural, and working class reading.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Hoboken
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 250 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
510 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-631-22627-7 (9780631226277)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions


Person
Louis James's writing reflects his interests in Victorian and postcolonial literature, and his main publications include Fiction for the Working Man 1830-50 (1963), Print and the People (1976) and Caribbean Writing in English (1999). After a much-travelled academic life he now lives with his wife and two cats near the University of Kent at Canterbury, where he is an Emeritus Professor of English.
Content
List of Illustration
Acknowledgement
How to Use This Book
Chronology
Introduction
Context 1: Time Maps
Prelude: 1830-1846
Revolutions: 1847-1849
Equipoise: 1850-1870
Turning the Tide: 1871-1880
The Last Decades: 1881-1901
Context 2: Changing Perspectives
'Things As They Are'
History
Biography
Religion and Morals
Evolution
Detectives
Context 3: Foundations
The Truth of the Heart
Affairs of the Heart(h)
Ways of Seeing
The Modality of Melodrama
The White Rabbit's Watch
Key Authors
William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-82)
Walter Besant (1836-1910)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (later Maxwell) (1835-1915)
Charlotte Bronte, 'Currer Bell' (1816-55), Emily [Jane] Bronte, 'Ellis Bell' (1818-48), Anne Bronte, 'Acton Bell' (1820-49)
Rhoda Broughton (1840-1920)
[William] Wilkie Collins (1824-89)
Marie [Isabel Marie] Corelli [nee Mills, later Mackay] (1855-1924)
Charles [John Huffam] Dickens (1812-70)
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81)
[Sir] Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
George Eliot (nee Mary Anne/Marian Evans) (1819-80)
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (nee Stevenson) 1810-65
George [Robert] Gissing (1857-1903)
[Sir] H[enry] Rider Haggard (1856-1925)
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
G[eorge] P[ayne] R[aynesford] James (1801-60)
Henry James (1843-1916)
Douglas [William] Jerrold (1803-57)
Geraldine E[ndsor] Jewsbury (1812-80)
Charles Kingsley (1819-75)
[Joseph] Rudyard Kipling (1830-76)
[Joseph Thomas] Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-73)
Edward Bulwer-Lytton [until 1843, Edward George Earle Lytton] (1803-73)
George Macdonald (1824-1905)
Frederick Marryat (1792-1848)
Harriet Martineau (1802-76)
George Meredith (1828-1909)
George [Augustus] Moore (1852-1933)
Margaret Oliphant [nee Wilson] (1828-97)
Ouida (Marie Louise de la Ramee, 1839-1908)
Charles Reade (1814-84)
G[eorge] W[illiam] M[acarthur] Reynolds (1814-79)
James Malcolm Rymer (1803?-84)
Robert Louis [Lewis Balfour] Stevenson (1850-94)
R[obert] S[mith] Surtees (1805-64)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63)
Anthony Trollope (1815-82)
Mrs T[homas] Humphry Ward (nee Mary Augusta Arnold) (1851-1920)
H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells (1866-1946)
[William Hale White] Mark Rutherford (1831-1913)
Ellen Wood [Mrs Henry Wood, nee Ellen Price] (1814-87)
Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901)
Key Texts
Major Presences
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to the Next (Part 1, 1678; Part II, 1684)
Sir Walter Scott, Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty years Since (1814)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818; revised 1831)
Pierce Egan, Sr, Life in London (1820-1)
Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1833-4)
Main Texts
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837-8)
G. W. M. Reynolds, The Mysteries of London (1844-6)
Geraldine Jewsbury, Zoe (1845)
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847)
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (1847)
W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1847-8)
W. M. Thackeray, Pendennis (1848-50)
Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1852-3)
Charlotte Bronte, Villette (1853)
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (1854-5)
Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers (1857)
George Eliot, Adam Bede (1859)
Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (1860)
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1860-1)
Mrs Henry [Ellen] Wood, East Lynne (1861)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret (1861-2)
Charles Kingsley, The Water-Babies (1863)
Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Through the Looking Glass (1871)
Ouida [Marie Louise de la Ramee], Under Two Flags (1867)
R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, Lorna Doone (1869)
George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871-2)
Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now (1874-5)
George Meredith, The Egoist (1879)
Henry James, Portrait of a Lady (1881)
[Olive Schreiner] Ralph Iron, The Story of an African Farm (1883)
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
Sir Henry Rider Haggard, She (1887)
George Gissing, New Grub Street (1891)
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891)
George Moore, Esther Waters (1894)
Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan (1895)
H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895)
Arthur Morrison, A Child of the Jago (1896)
Bram [Abraham] Stoker, Dracula (1897)
Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1902)
Topics
Children's Novels
Colonial Novels
Historical Novels
Illustrated Novels
Irish Novels
'New Woman' Novels
Publishing Formats
Regional Novels
Religious Novels
Science, Utopias and Dystopias
Sensation Novels
Social Problem Novels
The Supernatural
Working-class Novels
Further Reading
Index
Acknowledgement
How to Use This Book
Chronology
Introduction
Context 1: Time Maps
Prelude: 1830-1846
Revolutions: 1847-1849
Equipoise: 1850-1870
Turning the Tide: 1871-1880
The Last Decades: 1881-1901
Context 2: Changing Perspectives
'Things As They Are'
History
Biography
Religion and Morals
Evolution
Detectives
Context 3: Foundations
The Truth of the Heart
Affairs of the Heart(h)
Ways of Seeing
The Modality of Melodrama
The White Rabbit's Watch
Key Authors
William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-82)
Walter Besant (1836-1910)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (later Maxwell) (1835-1915)
Charlotte Bronte, 'Currer Bell' (1816-55), Emily [Jane] Bronte, 'Ellis Bell' (1818-48), Anne Bronte, 'Acton Bell' (1820-49)
Rhoda Broughton (1840-1920)
[William] Wilkie Collins (1824-89)
Marie [Isabel Marie] Corelli [nee Mills, later Mackay] (1855-1924)
Charles [John Huffam] Dickens (1812-70)
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81)
[Sir] Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
George Eliot (nee Mary Anne/Marian Evans) (1819-80)
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (nee Stevenson) 1810-65
George [Robert] Gissing (1857-1903)
[Sir] H[enry] Rider Haggard (1856-1925)
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
G[eorge] P[ayne] R[aynesford] James (1801-60)
Henry James (1843-1916)
Douglas [William] Jerrold (1803-57)
Geraldine E[ndsor] Jewsbury (1812-80)
Charles Kingsley (1819-75)
[Joseph] Rudyard Kipling (1830-76)
[Joseph Thomas] Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-73)
Edward Bulwer-Lytton [until 1843, Edward George Earle Lytton] (1803-73)
George Macdonald (1824-1905)
Frederick Marryat (1792-1848)
Harriet Martineau (1802-76)
George Meredith (1828-1909)
George [Augustus] Moore (1852-1933)
Margaret Oliphant [nee Wilson] (1828-97)
Ouida (Marie Louise de la Ramee, 1839-1908)
Charles Reade (1814-84)
G[eorge] W[illiam] M[acarthur] Reynolds (1814-79)
James Malcolm Rymer (1803?-84)
Robert Louis [Lewis Balfour] Stevenson (1850-94)
R[obert] S[mith] Surtees (1805-64)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63)
Anthony Trollope (1815-82)
Mrs T[homas] Humphry Ward (nee Mary Augusta Arnold) (1851-1920)
H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells (1866-1946)
[William Hale White] Mark Rutherford (1831-1913)
Ellen Wood [Mrs Henry Wood, nee Ellen Price] (1814-87)
Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901)
Key Texts
Major Presences
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to the Next (Part 1, 1678; Part II, 1684)
Sir Walter Scott, Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty years Since (1814)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818; revised 1831)
Pierce Egan, Sr, Life in London (1820-1)
Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1833-4)
Main Texts
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837-8)
G. W. M. Reynolds, The Mysteries of London (1844-6)
Geraldine Jewsbury, Zoe (1845)
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847)
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (1847)
W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1847-8)
W. M. Thackeray, Pendennis (1848-50)
Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1852-3)
Charlotte Bronte, Villette (1853)
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (1854-5)
Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers (1857)
George Eliot, Adam Bede (1859)
Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (1860)
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1860-1)
Mrs Henry [Ellen] Wood, East Lynne (1861)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret (1861-2)
Charles Kingsley, The Water-Babies (1863)
Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Through the Looking Glass (1871)
Ouida [Marie Louise de la Ramee], Under Two Flags (1867)
R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, Lorna Doone (1869)
George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871-2)
Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now (1874-5)
George Meredith, The Egoist (1879)
Henry James, Portrait of a Lady (1881)
[Olive Schreiner] Ralph Iron, The Story of an African Farm (1883)
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
Sir Henry Rider Haggard, She (1887)
George Gissing, New Grub Street (1891)
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891)
George Moore, Esther Waters (1894)
Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan (1895)
H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895)
Arthur Morrison, A Child of the Jago (1896)
Bram [Abraham] Stoker, Dracula (1897)
Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1902)
Topics
Children's Novels
Colonial Novels
Historical Novels
Illustrated Novels
Irish Novels
'New Woman' Novels
Publishing Formats
Regional Novels
Religious Novels
Science, Utopias and Dystopias
Sensation Novels
Social Problem Novels
The Supernatural
Working-class Novels
Further Reading
Index