The first study of the depictions of the Ancient World on the Victorian and Edwardian stage, this book analyzes plays set in and dramatising the histories of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Babylon and the Holy Land. In doing so, it seeks to locate theatre within the wider culture, tracing its links and interaction with other cultural forms.

In the nineteenth century, the ancient world became a very real presence for many writers and their publics, from the theatre-goers of popular pantomime to the intellectual thinkers in the academic and critical journals. The pre-eminence of the worlds of Greece and Rome was challenged by the discovery of Egyptian and Assyrian cultures, amongst other pre-Greek civilisations, and the worlds were brought to life in a series of high profile archaeological excavations and cultural exhibitions. Alongside the growing modernity of the Age of Steam, the whole of society was exposed to antiquity; architecture, painting, theatre, fiction and poetry, drew inspiration from the stories of the ancient writers, whilst the new museums and academies translated newly discovered languages and texts and excavated rediscovered ancient sites. The great civilisations, brimming with their own art and sculpted histories, were, however, contrasted by the traces of local, pre-civilised cultures of the West that existed before the coming of the Romans or in the Dark Ages immediately after their departure. The sense of a barbarity in manâ (TM)s past, a primitivism even, that may also be a survival into the modern age gradually grew in the Victorian mind as it uncovered the ancient sites of Britain and the prehistoric peoples of the Continent. It is during the post-Darwinian era of theories of social evolution, anthropology and ethnology that British and prehistorical archaeology began to find a public audience. This volume provides a series of readings from different disciplines that explore the presence of the ancient in nineteenth-century culture. The chapters demonstrate the range of the Victorian cultural preoccupation with civilisation and its primitive counterpoint and offer a combination of analyses of specific cultural events or traits, readings of particular Victorian texts and documents, and studies of exemplary Victorian figures and their personal engagements with antiquity. The book has been arranged to begin with archaeology and end with literary refashionings of the Classical, but the intertwinings of these elements in the Victorian period, as shown here, made the reaction to antiquity often an anxious and complex one.

THE VICTORIANS & ANCIENT ROME Norman Vance has written the first full-length study of the impact on Victorian Britain of the history and literature of ancient Rome. His comprehensive account shows how not only scholars and poets but also engineers, soldiers, scientists and politicians gained inspiration from the writing, theory and practice of their Roman predecessors. The Roman theme is traced in nineteenth-century painting and music as well as literature and political discussion. There are chapters on the imaginative influence throughout the nineteenth century of five major Roman poets, framed by other chapters on Rome and European revolutions, nineteenth-century versions of Roman history, fictions of Rome, imperialism and decadence. Attention is also paid to the influence of developments in archaeology both at Rome and Pompeii and at Romano-British sites. Professor Vance provides a fascinating account of the sense of connection Victorian Britain felt with the Roman experience, a connection made the more complex because Britain had once been a Roman colony and because Christianity took hold and spread under the Roman Empire.

A volume of essays which constitutes a major overview of the Victorian intellectual enterprise.

Victorians and Modern Greece examines the representation of nineteenth-century Greece in British magazines, fiction, poetry, and travel writing, revealing the popular reception of the modern nation in the Victorian period. Reflecting upon the tensions–ancient and modern, oriental and European, primitive and developed–emerging from Victorian texts on Modern Greece, the 12 essays in this volume analyse these texts and their role in reconceptualising the national identity and culture of Britain and Greece through their encounter with each other. Featuring writers such as Mary Shelley, Christopher Wordsworth, William Thackeray, Theodore Bent, Isabella Fyvie Mayo, Oscar Wilde, and Vernon Lee, as well as anonymous authors publishing in popular periodicals, and a broad range of topics from travel and fashion to political crises and the pervasive appeal of ruins, this book tells the story of Modern Greece from British perspectives, at a time when Greece was struggling to achieve self-definition among conflicting geopolitical interests. Victorians and Modern Greece also opens up Victorian studies to minor or marginal voices and narratives which addressed worldly concerns and Britain’s global affiliations. With its comparative perspective, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of both Victorian literature and culture and of the culture and history of Modern Greece.

This is a thought-provoking synthesis of the Victorian period, focusing on the themes of science, religion, politics and art. It examines the developments which radically changed the intellectual climate and illustrates how their manifestations permeated Victorian literature. The author begins by establishing the social and institutional framework in which intellectual and cultural life developed. Special attention is paid to the reform agenda of new groups which challenged traditional society, and this perspective informs Gilmour's discussion throughout the book. He assesses Victorian religion, science and politics in their own terms and in relation to the larger cultural politics of the middle-class challenge to traditionalism. Familiar topics, such as the Oxford Movement and Darwinism, are seen afresh, and those once neglected areas which are now increasingly important to modern scholars are brought into clear focus, such as Victorian agnosticism, the politics of gender, 'Englishness', and photography. The most innovative feature of this compelling study is the prominence given to the contemporary preoccupation with time. The Victorians' time-hauntedness emerges as the defining feature of their civilisation - the remote time of geology and evolution, the public time of history, the private time of autobiography.

This is a compelling account of Victorian Britain's troubled relationship with antiquity. Extraordinary characters - the virtuoso forger, the blundering general and the bitter prodigy - will engage scholars and general readers alike. This wide-ranging narrative breaks new ground in the fast-growing field of classical reception studies.

The Victorian era was a time of unprecedented transformation, yet it is often understood only through the stereotypes of crowded factories, child labour and emotional repression. In this entertaining and scholarly introduction, Dr David Gange explores the political, social and economic realities that defined life for Victorian people. Weaving together the perspectives of historians and literary scholars with movements in art, science and ethics, Gange paints a colourful, interdisciplinary portrait of everyday life in nineteenth century Britain. The Victorians: A Beginner's Guide features such famous figures as Dickens and Disraeli, while offering a thought-provoking examination of how our perceptions of this pivotal period of history have changed.

Playful, popular visions of ruined cities demonstrate antiquity's starring role in nineteenth-century culture, developing new models for understanding classical reception.