Victorian Fiction

Richly informative on the Victorian literary and cultural scene, this new reissue of John Sutherland's important 1995 study is essential reading for all those interested in the evolution of the Victorian novel, and includes a new Preface situating the book in current research being carried out on the history of the book and print culture. Drawing on extensive research, Sutherland draws a fascinating picture of the cultural, social and commercial factors influencing the content and production of Victorian fiction, discussing major writers such as Collins, Dickens, Eliot, Thackeray and Trollope alongside writers also very popular with the reading public—Reade, Lytton and Mrs. Humphry Ward—but whose fame has not endured.

Richly informative on the Victorian literary and cultural scene, this new reissue of John Sutherland's important 1995 study is essential reading for all those interested in the evolution of the Victorian novel, and includes a new Preface situating the book in current research being carried out on the history of the book and print culture. Drawing on extensive research, Sutherland draws a fascinating picture of the cultural, social and commercial factors influencing the content and production of Victorian fiction, discussing major writers such as Collins, Dickens, Eliot, Thackeray and Trollope alongside writers also very popular with the reading public--Reade, Lytton and Mrs. Humphry Ward--but whose fame has not endured.

Booknews

The proportion of Victorian novels in print today represents only a tiny fraction of what was published by Victorian writers. Sutherland (modern English literature, University College, London) describes the cultural, social and commercial factors influencing the production of Victorian fiction, from the Dickenses and Eliots to the many popular authors of the era whose fame has not endured. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at UCL and has been, for ten years, an annually Visiting Professor of Literature at the California Institute of Technology.