The Victorian Period: Intellectual and Cultural Context of English and Literature, 1830-1890, pb, 1993

Longman Literature in English Series

by Robin Gilmour

The author begins by establishing the social and institutional framework in which intellectual and cultural life developed. Special attention is paid to the reform agenda of new groups which challenged traditional society, and this perspective informs Gilmour's discussion throughout the book. He assesses Victorian religion, science and politics in their own terms and in relation to the larger cultural politics of the middle-class challenge to traditionalism. Familiar topics, such as the Oxford Movement and Darwinism, are seen afresh, and those once neglected areas which are now increasingly important to modern scholars are brought into clear focus, such as Victorian agnosticism, the politics of gender, 'Englishness', and photography. The most innovative feature of this compelling study is the prominence given to the contemporary preoccupation with time. The Victorians' time-hauntedness emerges as the defining feature of their civilisation - the remote time of geology and evolution, the public time of history, the private time of autobiography.

Genres: History, Victorian, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published November 1, 1993

Reviews

[Freya Munsch · Rating 2 out of 5]

i didnt process any of this book 😍 it was so dull

it was more ‘intellectual and cultural context’ and less of how this directly impacted english lit but maybe im wrong and it just didnt spoon feed me information. regardless, very dull- i had to read 50 pages summarizing various books about geology published in the victorian age and i actually cried.

[Fran]

this is by far the best of these anthology-types I've read so far. it will be my primary secondary field resource going forward

[isabella martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

outdated in some bits, but provided some useful context for PRB and victorian art - a slay! also, cannot believe that the original PRB were all under TWENTY-THREE? and i’m out here doing nothing fr

[Annji · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my AS class. Simple and straightfoward. I might look for the Romantics book in this series.