In this important new book, Guy and Small develop a new account of literary creativity in the late nineteenth century, one that combines concepts generated by text-theorists concerning the embodied nature of textuality with the empirical insights of text-editors and book historians. Through these developments, which the authors term the textual turn, this study examines the textual condition of nineteenth-century literature. The authors explore works by Dickens, Wilde, Hardy, Yeats, Swinburne, FitzGerald, Pater, Arnold, Pinero and Shaw, connecting questions about what a work textually is with questions about why we read it and how we value it. The study asks whether the textual turn places us in a stronger position to analyze the value of a nineteenth-century text not for readers of the nineteenth century, but of the twenty-first. The authors argue that this issue of value is central to their discipline.

Nineteenth-century Britain saw the rise of secularism, the development of a modern capitalist economy, multi-party democracy, and an explosive growth in technological, scientific and medical knowledge. It also witnessed the emergence of a mass literary culture which changed permanently the relationships between writers, readers and publishers. Focusing on the work of British and Irish authors, The Routledge Concise History of Nineteenth-Century Literature considers changes in literary forms, styles and genres, as well as in critical discourses. It examines literary movements such as Romanticism, Pre-Raphaelitism, Aestheticism and Decadence. It considers the work of a wide range of canonical and non-canonical writers. It discusses the impact of gender studies, queer theory, postcolonialism and book history. It contains useful, student-friendly features such as explanatory text boxes, chapter summaries, a detailed glossary and suggestions for further reading. In their lucid and accessible manner, Josephine M. Guy and Ian Small provide readers with an understanding of the complexity and variety of nineteenth-century literary culture, as well as the historical conditions which produced it.

Nineteenth-century Britain saw the rise of secularism, the development of a modern capitalist economy, multi-party democracy, and an explosive growth in technological, scientific and medical knowledge. It also witnessed the emergence of a mass literary culture which changed permanently the relationships between writers, readers and publishers.
Focusing on the work of British and Irish authors, The Routledge Concise History of Nineteenth-Century Literature:

• considers changes in literary forms, styles and genres, as well as in critical discourses
• examines literary movements such as Romanticism, Pre-Raphaelitism, Aestheticism and Decadence
• considers the work of a wide range of canonical and non-canonical writers
• discusses the impact of gender studies, queer theory, postcolonialism and book history
• contains useful, student-friendly features such as explanatory text boxes, chapter summaries, a detailed glossary and suggestions for further reading.

In their lucid and accessible manner, Josephine M. Guy and Ian Small provide readers with an understanding of the complexity and variety of nineteenth-century literary culture, as well as the historical conditions which produced it.

The Victorian Age introduces students of nineteenth-century literary and cultural history to the main areas of intellectual debate in the Victorian period. Bringing together for the first time in one volume a wide range of primary source material, this anthology gives readers a unique insight into the ways in which different areas of Victorian intellectual debate were interconnected.
The Victorian Age covers developments in social and political theory, economics, science and religion, aesthetics, and sexuality and gender, and provides access to a range of documents which have hitherto been highly inaccessible - both difficult to locate and difficult to interpret and understand. This authoritative anthology contains:
* a general introduction which explains the various ways in which the relationships between literary and intellectual culture can be theorised
* essays describing the background to the areas of debate illustrated by the selected source documents
* bibliographical notes on all the documents included
* brief accounts of the reputation and career of the documents' authors.
This volume will enable humanities students, as well as the general reader, to understand complex areas of debates in an unusually wide range of disciplines, several of which will be unfamiliar.