| The Companion contains an
impressive array of entries on topics that concerned
Victorian writers of popular fiction. The subjects that
are addressed include: Alcoholism, Anti-Semitism, Class,
Cricket, Grave Robbing, Hysteria, Medicine, the Occult and
Vampires. Elizabeth Steere's entry on Class exemplifies
how some contributors discuss the ways in which a specific
topic is handled by various authors in a range of novels.
Steere highlights how the issue of class is addressed by
writers including Wilkie Collins, Mary Elizabeth Braddon,
Walter Besant, Ellen Wood, William Makepeace Thackeray,
Florence Marryat, William Harrison Ainsworth, Sheridan Le
Fanu and Charles Dickens. Her wide-ranging discussion
covers the class anxieties that accompanied the rise in
literacy rates, the fears provoked by the cross-class
appeal of genres such as sensation fiction, portrayals of
social fall or upward mobility, the depiction of the
dangers of novel-reading, and how authors including
Dickens "exposed the hypocrisies and arbitrariness of the
British class system" (51). Within a short entry, she
offers an incisive and insightful discussion of some of
the many ways in which concerns relating to class emerge
in popular fiction. This is a good example of how the Companion
provides concise and accessible information for students.
Anne Louise Russell, Review in Victorian Popular Fictions 1:1 (Spring 2019) |
| The Companion to
Victorian Popular Fiction is a fascinating and
user-friendly guide to the fiction that was
voraciously consumed by later Victorians; it is a
volume that no doubt is valuable to scholars with
wide interests, given the wide scope of topics,
journals, texts, and writers covered by top scholars
in the field. In addition to advanced scholars,
perhaps looking for information on neglected authors
or on specific trends in popular fiction, the Companion
is also a useful classroom resource for graduate and
undergraduate students alike, especially given the
conclusions that can be drawn about life in
late-Victorian Britain from the trends that emerge
across the text. Leah Grisham, Review in Wilkie Collins Society Journal 18 (2018) |