Victorian Literature

An accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the era, this companion explores influential dramatic works by Ibsen, Shaw and Wilde; the poetry of mourning; novelistic genres, including social problem novels and sensation fiction; and the literature of the fin de siècle's aesthetes and decadents. Cultural and historical debates - focussing on empire, national identity, science and evolution, print culture and gender - supply essential context alongside discussion of relevant critical theory.