The Victorian Bookshelf

This introductory guide to the canon of Victorian literature covers 61 novels by authors from Jane Austen to Emile Zola. Brief critical essays describe what each book is about and argue for its cultural, historical and literary importance. Literary canons remain a subject of debate but critics, readers and students continue to find them useful as overviews—and examinations—of the great works within a given period or culture. The Victorian canon is particularly rich with splendid novels that educate, enlighten and entertain.
Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Jess Nevins is a reference librarian at Lone Star College in Tomball, Texas.

Jess Nevins
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 276
Bibliographic Info: appendix, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6500-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2433-4
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Introduction  1
L’Assommoir   5
Barchester Towers   9
Barry Lyndon   13
Bleak House   15
The Charterhouse of Parma   21
Coningsby   24
The Count of Monte Cristo   28
Diana of the Crossways   32
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde   35
Dracula   39
East Lynne   43
The Egoist   47
Emma   51
Frankenstein   57
Great Expectations   61
Heavenly Twins   65
Huckleberry Finn   69
The Hunchback of Notre Dame   72
The Invisible Man   75
Jane Eyre   78
Jude the Obscure   84
Kidnapped   89
Kim   92
Lady Audley’s Secret   96
The Last Days of Pompeii   100
The Last of the Mohicans   103
Little Women   108
Lorna Doone   114
Madame Bovary   119
Marius the Epicurean   122
Mary Barton   125
Middlemarch   128
Les Misérables   133
Miss Marjoribanks   137
Moby Dick   140
The Moonstone   143
Nana   148
New Grub Street   152
North and South   155
Pelham   159
Père Goriot   163
The Picture of Dorian Gray  168
The Portrait of a Lady   171
Pride and Prejudice   175
The Red and the Black   181
Salammbô   184
The Scarlet Letter   188
She   191
Silas Marner   195
Sister Carrie   198
The Sorrows of Satan 201
Tess of the d’Urbervilles 205
The Three Musketeers   208
The Time Machine   211
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea   214
Under Two Flags   218
Vanity Fair   223
Waverley   227
The Way We Live Now   230
The Woman in White   234
Wuthering Heights   238
Appendix: Concepts  245
Index  261

“informed and informative…impressively well written”—Midwest Book Review.