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Pamela K. Gilbert's A Companion to Sensation Fiction
assembles a set of lucid and informed essays that bid
for the history, artistry, and ongoing cultural
significance of the sensation genre. The volume, the
first of its kind to address sensation fiction ...
brings together established authorities with some newer
critical voices to offer comprehensive coverage. The Companion
addresses familiar contextual issues in the
field�\imperialism, the history of medicine, and the role
of the periodical press�\and ranges over subgenres from
silver fork novels to twenty-first-century
neo-Victorianism, and methods from legal history to
cognitivism. The Companion divides sections along the lines of genre history, individual authors, and themes. ... The second section, "Reading Individual Authors and Texts, 1860–1880," provides interpretive biography of the best known writers as well as thematic readings of the more commonly taught novels. ... This section also includes eight chapters on other figures, from Sheridan Le Fanu and Rhoda Broughton to Charlotte Brame and Mary Cecil Hay (the discussion of the latter [by Graham Law] showcases the rewards of print history). ... Elisha Cohn, Victorian Studies 55:4 (Summer 2013) |