Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction

by John Sutherland

This volume represents a full account of English fiction between 1837-1901. It contains over 1000 biographical entries and over 600 novels have been synopsized. Additionally, a wealth of background material has been included on publishers, reviewers and readers of the form. The material has been arranged alphabetically and, although economical in expression, it aims to meet the high standards of factual accuracy demanded by modern scholarship, while at the same time retaining the human and literary interest associated with such companion reference works.

708 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

John Andrew Sutherland is an English academic, newspaper columnist and author. He is Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London.

Reviews

[John Bellamy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So you think you know your Victorian fiction? Well, I foolishly thought I did until a recent reading of Sutherland’s Lives of the Novelists led me back to this treasure, first published nearly a quarter-century ago. Sutherland admits to having read over 3,000 Victorian novels for his Companion but it must be said that he wears such profound learning lightly. It would be absurd to say that it reads like a novel—but it is, indeed, that very rare thing, a reference book that is an immense and page-turning pleasure to read. Sutherland’s literary judgments are sound, his pawky wit is generously sprinkled throughout the 700+ pages of text and only the most unsusceptible reader will emerge from it without an extensive list of Victorian titles to pursue.