The Victorians A Very Short Introduction

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Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The Victorian period may have come to an end over 120 years ago, but the Victorians continue to be a vital presence in the modern world. Contemporary Britain is still in large part Victorian in its transport networks, sewage systems, streets, and houses. Victorian cultural legacies, especially in art, science, and literature, are still celebrated. The first to have to grapple with many of the challenges of modern urban society, we continue to look to the Victorians for inspiration and solace. And we are increasingly aware of the ways their global actions shaped, often for ill, the world around us. Much mythologised, inexhaustibly controversial, the Victorians are an inescapable reference point for understanding the modern histories not just of Britain and its empire, but of the world. In The Victorians: A Very Short Introduction Martin Hewitt offers a guide through the thickets of judgement and debate which have grown around the period and its people, to offer a historical overview of the Victorians and their legacies. He seeks to answer five crucial questions. Why have the Victorians continued occupy such a prominent place in the cultures of not just the anglophone world? How far does it make sense to think of a 64-year period arbitrarily given an identity by the longevity of the Queen as an identifiable historical period in a general sense? How justified are the value-laden versions of the Victorians which argue for the existence of a particular world view called 'Victorianism'? Beyond ideology, what was Victorian Britain actually like – and in particular, what was distinctive about it? Who were the Victorians – not just the eminent few, but the population as a whole? And finally, how far and with what results did the Victorians and their culture spread across the globe? In answering these questions, Hewitt cautions against some long-held orthodoxies, throws a light on some less well-known aspects of the period, and urges the importance of understanding the Victorians on their own terms if we are to effectively engage with their legacies. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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Genre : History
Author : Martin Hewitt
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Release : 2023-07-25
File : 161 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780191056536


Biography A Very Short Introduction

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Biographies are one of the most popular and best-selling of the literary genres. Why do people like them? What does a biography do and how does it work? This Very Short Introduction examines different types of biographies, why certain people and historical events arouse so much interest, and how they are compared with history and fiction.

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Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Author : Hermione Lee
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Release : 2009-07-09
File : 185 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780199533541


Contemporary Fiction A Very Short Introduction

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In this Very Short Introduction, Robert Eaglestone provides a clear and engaging exploration of the major themes, patterns, and debates of contemporary fiction.

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Genre : Fiction
Author : Robert Eaglestone
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Release : 2013-07-25
File : 137 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780199609260


The Victorians

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A discussion of the Victorians and their literature. It sets out the political, social and economic framework of the period, and then goes on to study the various influences on the novel, addresses the forms and styles of poetry and, finally, provides an overview of Victorian drama. Each chapter features a further reading list and there is a comparative time-line, a biographical glossary and a list of websites. The volume is part of a series which sets writers and literary works of different types and periods in their historical, social and cultural context and provides an introduction to various genres.

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Genre : Juvenile Nonfiction
Author : Aidan Cruttenden
Publisher : Evans Brothers
Release : 2003
File : 104 Pages
ISBN-13 : 023752256X


Dining With The Victorians

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Journey through Britain’s food history and discover the fascinating, gruesome and wonderful culinary traditions of the Victorians.

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Genre : History
Author : Emma Kay
Publisher : Amberley Publishing Limited
Release : 2015-10-15
File : 304 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781445646558


Shakespeare And The Victorians

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Shakespeare and the Victorians explores the place of Shakespeare in Victorian culture, and shows how the plays and the man became central to all levels of Victorian life and thought.

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Genre : History
Author : Stuart Sillars
Publisher : Oxford Shakespeare Topics
Release : 2013-11
File : 228 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780199668083


How Romantics And Victorians Organized Information

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Every literary household in nineteenth-century Britain had a commonplace book, scrapbook, or album. Coleridge called his collection "Fly-Catchers", while George Eliot referred to one of her commonplace books as a "Quarry," and Michael Faraday kept quotations in his "Philosophical Miscellany." Nevertheless, the nineteenth-century commonplace book, along with associated traditions like the scrapbook and album, remain under-studied. This book tells the story of how technological and social changes altered methods for gathering, storing, and organizing information in nineteenth-century Britain. As the commonplace book moved out of the schoolroom and into the home, it took on elements of the friendship album. At the same time, the explosion of print allowed readers to cheaply cut-and-paste extractions rather than copying out quotations by hand. Built on the evidence of over 300 manuscripts, this volume unearths the composition practices of well-known writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Walter Scott, George Eliot, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, and their less well-known contemporaries. Divided into two sections, the first half of the book contends that methods for organizing knowledge developed in line with the period's dominant epistemic frameworks, while the second half argues that commonplace books helped Romantics and Victorians organize people. Chapters focus on prominent organizational methods in nineteenth-century commonplacing, often attached to an associated epistemic virtue: diaristic forms and the imagination (Chapter Two); "real time" entries signalling objectivity (Chapter Three); antiquarian remnants, serving as empirical evidence for historical arguments (Chapter Four); communally produced commonplace books that attest to socially constructed knowledge (Chapter Five); and blank spaces in commonplace books of mourning (Chapter Six). Richly illustrated, this book brings an archive of commonplace books, scrapbooks, and albums to the reader.

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Genre : Literary Criticism
Author : Jillian M. Hess
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Release : 2022-06-02
File : 320 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780192648488


The Routledge Companion To William Morris

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William Morris (1834–96) was an English poet, decorative artist, translator, romance writer, book designer, preservationist, socialist theorist, and political activist, whose admirers have been drawn to the sheer intensity of his artistic endeavors and efforts to live up to radical ideals of social justice. This Companion draws together historical and critical responses to the impressive range of Morris’s multi-faceted life and activities: his homes, travels, family, business practices, decorative artwork, poetry, fantasy romances, translations, political activism, eco-socialism, and book collecting and design. Each chapter provides valuable historical and literary background information, reviews relevant opinions on its subject from the late-nineteenth century to the present, and offers new approaches to important aspects of its topic. Morris’s eclectic methodology and the perennial relevance of his insights and practice make this an essential handbook for those interested in art history, poetry, translation, literature, book design, environmentalism, political activism, and Victorian and utopian studies.

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Genre : Art
Author : Florence S. Boos
Publisher : Routledge
Release : 2020-10-29
File : 574 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781351859004


Key Concepts In Victorian Literature

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Key Concepts in Victorian Literature is a lively, clear and accessible resource for anyone interested in Victorian literature. It contains major facts, ideas and contemporary literary theories, is packed with close and detailed readings and offers an overview of the historical and cultural context in which this literature was produced.

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Genre : Study Aids
Author : Sean Purchase
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Release : 2006-03-27
File : 304 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780230204195


An Underground History Of Early Victorian Fiction

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Explores the journalism and fiction appearing in the early Victorian working-class periodical press and its influence on mainstream literature.

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Genre : Literary Criticism
Author : Gregory Vargo
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Release : 2018
File : 299 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781107197855