A Companion to the Victorian Novel - (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture) by Patrick Brantlinger & William Thesing (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Companion to the Victorian Novel provides contextual and critical information about the entire range of British fiction published between 1837 and 1901.

• Provides contextual and critical information about the entire range of British fiction published during the Victorian period.
• Explains issues such as Victorian religions, class structure, and Darwinism to those who are unfamiliar with them.
• Comprises original, accessible chapters written by renowned and emerging scholars in the field of Victorian studies.
• Ideal for students and researchers seeking up-to-the-minute coverage of contexts and trends, or as a starting point for a survey course.

From the Back Cover

It is estimated that between 1837 and 1901 some 60,000 novels were published in Britain. This Companion introduces readers to the historical contexts in which this vast range of fiction was produced and to the critical debates that have raged about it ever since.

The Companion comprises twenty-six original, accessible chapters, written by renowned and emerging scholars in the field of Victorian studies. The first section provides overviews of key historical contexts, such as religion, class, gender, and the publishing world. The second part surveys the various genres and subgenres of the Victorian novel. The third deals with Victorian, modern, and postmodern theories of the novel and looks at how Victorian novels and novelists were received, both now and then.

A detailed and convenient index enables cross-referencing and study of a broad spectrum of authors, novels, themes, and controversies, while informed bibliographies following each chapter contain many helpful recommendations for further reading.

Review Quotes

"These are wonderful essays [...] written by important scholars in the field. [...]Highly recommended." Choice

"another Blackwell reference work of prodigious proportions [...] by a galaxy of distinguished scholars [...] indispensable for any comprehensive reference library, destined indeed to be of permanent value and importance for many years to come." Reference Reviews

About the Author

Patrick Brantlinger is Rudy Professor of English at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author of The Reading Lesson: The Threat of Mass Literacy in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction (1998), Fictions of State: Culture and Credit in Britain 1694-1994 (1996), Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism 1830-1914 (1990), and Crusoe's Footprints: Cultural Studies in Britain and America (1990).

William B. Thesing is Professor of English at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. He is the author of The London Muse: Victorian Poetic Responses to the City (1982) and the editor of five volumes in Gale's Dictionary of Literary Biography: Victorian Prose Writers before 1867 (1986), Victorian Prose Writers after 1867 (1987), Victorian Women Poets (1998), British Short-Fiction Writers, 1880-1914: The Realist Tradition (1994), and Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century British Women Poets (2001). He recently edited Caverns of Night: Coal Mines in Art, Literature, and Film (2000).