The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Volume 5: The Victorian Era

by Joseph Laurence Black (Editor), Leonard Conolly (Editor), Kate Flint (Editor)

This is a new edition of the fifth volume of an anthology that has been called "the new standard."

Genres: Anthologies, School, Classics, Reference

979 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2006

Reviews

[Momo]

(I read the third edition, which is much longer, so apologies if the version's original content or formatting differs greatly)

This was a textbook for a Victorian literature class I took, and while it was useful for that, there is just way too much content of little substance. There are quite large discussion sections that I find pretty useless, since they could be summarized much more. The way the contents in laid out is also a bit odd; some authors had their works split up, but others had whole sections. I believe this could easily have a few hundred pages knocked off of it, especially since most courses don't require you to actually read the textbooks front to back. I did enjoy the collection of works in this book; there was diverse literary content and authors, not just the most popular white male poets of the time, and the same pieces everyone has probably heard of a million times.

I did find a free PDF version though, so that was amazing and saved me money, but even if you need this for a course and don't have the money, it is pretty easy to look up the assigned readings and find them posted elsewhere (it just won't be in one condensed book). Because of the way that this textbook is laid out, other than the first bit and discussions, which were original content, the rest is public domain and not in chapters, so your professor should be telling you what needs to be read, and you can search the title and find it online (probably with discussion/ literary critique as well).

[Emilia]

This anthology needs a good editor and better selections.

There are tiny snippets of the most influential writers of the era and too many from other authors that aren't as famous FOR A DAMN REASON.

[Ciara (Lost at Midnight)]

Didn't read all of it (obviously it's like 900 pages) but the poems and short stories I did were generally great. Good introductions as well. I might go back to this one in the future!

[Elizabeth]

great for an intro to victorian lit, but should be accompanied by a class or the instructions/advice of a knowledgeable teacher. otherwise it can feel dense and confusing.