A lawyer by profession, Theodore Martin (1816-1909) gained literary distinction as both a humorous essayist and versatile translator. He found his greatest success, however, in the role of biographer to Prince Albert (1819-61). Commissioned by Queen Victoria to memorialise her late husband, this five-volume work was first published between 1875 and 1880. Intended as a continuation of the biography begun by Charles Grey (also reissued in this series), it has been described as 'less adulatory in tone than might be expected'. A treasury of letters and memoranda, it presents a detailed portrait of the character, words and deeds of a man whose life was necessarily immersed in the great events of his time. Volume 1 covers Albert's youth, his marriage to Victoria and the early years as her husband, up until the birth of their sixth child, Princess Louise, in 1848.

A lawyer by profession, Theodore Martin (1816-1909) gained literary distinction as both a humorous essayist and versatile translator. He found his greatest success, however, in the role of biographer to Prince Albert (1819-61). Commissioned by Queen Victoria to memorialise her late husband, this five-volume work was first published between 1875 and 1880. Intended as a continuation of the biography begun by Charles Grey (also reissued in this series), it has been described as 'less adulatory in tone than might be expected'. A treasury of letters and memoranda, it presents a detailed portrait of the character, words and deeds of a man whose life was necessarily immersed in the great events of his time. Volume 2 covers the period from 1848 to 1854, the births of Princes Arthur and Leopold, the collapse of the Chartist movement and the 'spectacular success' of the Great Exhibition of 1851.

A lawyer by profession, Theodore Martin (1816-1909) gained literary distinction as both a humorous essayist and versatile translator. He found his greatest success, however, in the role of biographer to Prince Albert (1819-61). Commissioned by Queen Victoria to memorialise her late husband, this five-volume work was first published between 1875 and 1880. Intended as a continuation of the biography begun by Charles Grey (also reissued in this series), it has been described as 'less adulatory in tone than might be expected'. A treasury of letters and memoranda, it presents a detailed portrait of the character, words and deeds of a man whose life was necessarily immersed in the great events of his time. Volume 3 covers the period from 1854 to 1856 and deals extensively with the significant role played by Albert during the Crimean War.

A lawyer by profession, Theodore Martin (1816-1909) gained literary distinction as both a humorous essayist and versatile translator. He found his greatest success, however, in the role of biographer to Prince Albert (1819-61). Commissioned by Queen Victoria to memorialise her late husband, this five-volume work was first published between 1875 and 1880. Intended as a continuation of the biography begun by Charles Grey (also reissued in this series), it has been described as 'less adulatory in tone than might be expected'. A treasury of letters and memoranda, it presents a detailed portrait of the character, words and deeds of a man whose life was necessarily immersed in the great events of his time. Volume 4 deals with the difficult period of 1856-9, which saw mutiny in India, worldwide commercial uncertainty, and the beginning of a decline in Albert's health.

A lawyer by profession, Theodore Martin (1816-1909) gained literary distinction as both a humorous essayist and versatile translator. He found his greatest success, however, in the role of biographer to Prince Albert (1819-61). Commissioned by Queen Victoria to memorialise her late husband, this five-volume work was first published between 1875 and 1880. Intended as a continuation of the biography begun by Charles Grey (also reissued in this series), it has been described as 'less adulatory in tone than might be expected'. A treasury of letters and memoranda, it presents a detailed portrait of the character, words and deeds of a man whose life was necessarily immersed in the great events of his time. Volume 5 covers Albert's final years, from 1859 to his protracted illness and death in 1861 at the age of forty-two.

What does it mean to call something "contemporary"? More than simply denoting what's new, it speaks to how we come to know the present we're living in and how we develop a shared story about it. The story of trying to understand the present is an integral, yet often unnoticed, part of the literature and film of our moment. In Contemporary Drift, Theodore Martin argues that the contemporary is not just a historical period but also a conceptual problem, and he claims that contemporary genre fiction offers a much-needed resource for resolving that problem. Contemporary Drift combines a theoretical focus on the challenge of conceptualizing the present with a historical account of contemporary literature and film. Emphasizing both the difficulty and the necessity of historicizing the contemporary, the book explores how recent works of fiction depict life in an age of global capitalism, postindustrialism, and climate change. Through new histories of the novel of manners, film noir, the Western, detective fiction, and the postapocalyptic novel, Martin shows how the problem of the contemporary preoccupies a wide range of novelists and filmmakers, including Zadie Smith, Colson Whitehead, Vikram Chandra, China Mieville, Kelly Reichardt, and the Coen brothers. Martin argues that genre provides these artists with a formal strategy for understanding both the content and the concept of the contemporary. Genre writing, with its mix of old and new, brings to light the complicated process by which we make sense of our present and determine what belongs to our time.

What does it mean to call something "contemporary"? More than simply denoting what's new, it speaks to how we come to know the present we're living in and how we develop a shared story about it. The story of trying to understand the present is an integral, yet often unnoticed, part of the literature and film of our moment. In Contemporary Drift, Theodore Martin argues that the contemporary is not just a historical period but also a conceptual problem, and he claims that contemporary genre fiction offers a much-needed resource for resolving that problem. Contemporary Drift combines a theoretical focus on the challenge of conceptualizing the present with a historical account of contemporary literature and film. Emphasizing both the difficulty and the necessity of historicizing the contemporary, the book explores how recent works of fiction depict life in an age of global capitalism, postindustrialism, and climate change. Through new histories of the novel of manners, film noir, the Western, detective fiction, and the postapocalyptic novel, Martin shows how the problem of the contemporary preoccupies a wide range of novelists and filmmakers, including Zadie Smith, Colson Whitehead, Vikram Chandra, China Mieville, Kelly Reichardt, and the Coen brothers. Martin argues that genre provides these artists with a formal strategy for understanding both the content and the concept of the contemporary. Genre writing, with its mix of old and new, brings to light the complicated process by which we make sense of our present and determine what belongs to our time.