Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Victorian Literature [Hardcover]

Written by a selection of international scholars, these 12 essays deliver on the collection's title. Sometimes, though, perspectives percolate, as they inevitably must, through earlier evaluations of the era. For instance, the first five essays constitute a valuable summary (particularly useful for the uninitiated) of cultural, critical, political, social, and religious issues dominating Victorian consciousness. Laura Dabundo writes perhaps the most charming of these, deftly analyzing the Romanticism of the Bront?s and Carlyle. Dickens gets two full chapters, one by Chris Louttit, who treats Oliver Twist as a protest novel and as a bridge between Regency and Victorian fiction, the other by Grace Moore, who argues that Dickens's later fiction 'convey[s] feelings of entrapment and gloom.' The essays are well chosen, not only for scholars but also for those interested in either a quick introduction or a review of major writers and themes. Mazzeno admits to omissions, another inevitability in a collection of this nature, and one wishes that George Eliot, for instance, had not been left out. That aside, the collection is remarkably comprehensive. Summing Up: Highly recommended: Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers/faculty.The volume opens with excellent overviews of Victorian cultural history and the Victorian novel...it continues with insightful analyses.... The volume's superior coverage of canonical texts makes it an excellent primer for undergraduates encountering the Victorian period and for graduate students studying for qualifying exams.This is an eclectic collection of essays from a group of international scholars tackling various subjects on Victorian literaturefrom studies of specific authors such Charles Dickens early and later works, Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights, and novels by Thomas Hardy to more general discussions, such as the depictions of women in Victorian novels.Victorian literatures fascination with the past, its examil��