A Concise Companion to the Victorian Novel
Francis O’Gorman (ed)
Blackwell Publishing

This book is a series of essays exploring themes in Victorian novels during the period 1830-1900. These themes include the Empire, visuality, class, law, psychology, material culture, the function of the author, sexuality, religion, biology, Europe and emotion. Books analysed include Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Robinson Crusoe, A Christmas Carol and The Mill on the Floss.

A chronology is placed near the front of the book so the reader is aware of issues facing the Victorians. The editor believes it is essential to understand the history and the culture of the time to truly understand the Victorian novel.

The book is full of interesting snippets including: the crisis a hero faced when he couldn’t work out the class of the woman who wanted to speak to him; how serialising a novel meant the poor could afford to read too; the importance of religion in novels because most readers were familiar with the Bible and Pilgrim’s Progress; and that Oscar Wilde thought that Dickens was over sentimental when he wrote death scenes.

A great book for the literature devotee.

Katy Gerner