War, the Army and Victorian Literature [Hardcover]

A ground-breaking study of how literature both reflected and contributed to the eclipse and subsequent revival of militarism in the nineteenth century. Focusing on four major disputes in the Crimea, India, the Sudan, and South Africa as well as the role of the army in Britain, John Peck examines how Victorian writers responded to military issues. At the heart of the book is a dilemma that characterises the Victorian period: the impossibility of reconciling imperial aggression with liberal domestic values.Preface The Army in Victorian Literature and Life The Crimean: A Novelists' War Thackeray and the Culture of War The Army Abroad: Fictions of India and the Indian Mutiny The Army at Home: From Disraeli to Hardy Heroes Kipling's Militarism The Boer War Notes IndexJohn Peck is now retired and was formerly Reader in Victorian Literature at Cardiff University, UK. With Martin Coyle he edits the Key Concepts series for Palgrave Macmillan.