The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel

In The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel, a series of specially-commissioned essays examine the work of Charles Dickens, the Brontës, George Eliot and other canonical writers, as well as that of such writers as Olive Schreiner, Wilkie Collins and H. Rider Haggard, whose work has recently attracted new attention from scholars and students. The collection combines the literary study of the novel as a form with analysis of the material aspects of its readership and production, and a series of thematic and contextual perspectives that examine Victorian fiction in the light of social and cultural concerns relevant both to the period itself and to the direction of current literary and cultural studies. Contributors engage with topics such as industrial culture, religion and science and the broader issues of the politics of gender, sexuality and race. The Companion includes a chronology and a comprehensive guide to further reading.

• Wide ranging article written by a distinguished group of Anglo-American critics • Accessible to lower level readers, yet also an essential reading for scholars in the field • Contains comprehensive guide to further reading

Introduction Deirdre David; 1. The Victorian novel and its readers Kate Flint; 2. The business of Victorian publishing Simon Eliot; 3. The aesthetics of the Victorian novel: form, subjectivity, ideology Linda M. Shires; 4. Industrial culture and the Victorian novel Joseph W. Childers; 5. Gender and the Victorian novel Nancy Armstrong; 6. Sexuality and the Victorian novel Jeff Nunokawa; 7. Race and the Victorian novel Patrick Brantlinger; 8. Detection in the Victorian novel Ronald R. Thomas; 9. Sensation and the fantastic in the Victorian novel Lyn Pykett; 10. Intellectual debate and the Victorian novel: religion, science and the professional John Kucich; 11. Dickens, Melville and a tale of two countries Robert Weisbuch; Guide to further reading.