The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Culture

Stimulating and informative new essays on many aspects of nineteenth-century culture.

Francis O'Gorman (Edited by)

9780521886994, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 January 2010

326 pages, 13 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.64 kg

The Victorian era produced artistic achievements, technological inventions and social developments that continue to shape how we live today. This Companion offers authoritative coverage of that period's culture and its contexts in a group of specially commissioned essays reflecting the current state of research in each particular field. Covering topics from music to politics, art to technology, war to domestic arts, journalism to science, the essays address multiple aspects of the Victorian world. The book explores what 'Victorian' has come to mean and how an idea of the 'Victorian' might now be useful to historians of culture. It explores too the many different meanings of 'culture' itself in the nineteenth century and in contemporary scholarship. An invaluable resource for students of literature, history, and interdisciplinary studies, this Companion analyses the nature of nineteenth-century British cultural life and offers searching perspectives on their culture as seen from ours.

1. Introduction Francis O'Gorman
2. Science and culture Bernard V. Lightman
3. Technology Nicholas Daly
4. Economics and business Timothy Alborn
5. War Edward S. Spiers
6. Music Ruth A. Solie
7. Theatre Katherine Newey
8. Popular culture Dennis Denisoff
9. Satirical print culture John Strachan
10. Journalism Matthew Rubery
11. Art Elizabeth Prettejohn
12. Domestic arts Nicola Humble
13. Victorian literary theory Anna Maria Jones
14. The dead Francis O'Gorman
15. Remembering the Victorians Samantha Matthews
Guide to further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Literature: history & criticism [DS], Literature & literary studies [D]