During Charles Dickens's lifetime, education publications such as "The Union Sixth Reader" already shared methods for teaching his works. "The Union Sixth Reader" gives evidence to educational concerns surrounding the best uses of language, as though Dickens's turns of phrase could empower students. Today, educators may not…

Heralded as a sympathizer with the oppressed nineteenth century femininity, Thomas Hardy adopted an aggressive stance towards the institutionalized codes of the time, particularly the ideal of femininity which results in presenting him as one of the promethean forerunners of "New Woman" fiction. His outspoken attitudes are tangible in…

Mary Elizabeth Braddon's novels and stories exemplify some of the main issues surrounding women's texts and their place in literature: aesthetic value, intellectual challenge, universality, and contemporary popularity. Her work, it may be argued, betrays occasional aesthetic imperfections; however, she produced a tremendous amount of published…

Argues that the works of G.A. Henty are a phenomenon worthy of study for the literary historian and examines some of the main reactions to his work at and since his time. (HOD)

Proposing that Thomas Hardy's fiction exhibits strong Gothic sensibilities which offer insight into his artistic vision and add to the power of his fiction, creating a new form of the Gothic, a Victorian Gothic, this dissertation reassesses the Gothic strains in Hardy's fiction. The dissertation is in eight chapters: (1) Introduction to Hardy's…

The best current books in the fields of literature and fiction written by or about Catholics are listed and briefly reviewed. (JN)

This bibliography is intended as a convenient guide to scholarship in the field of Victorian fiction for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. The listings are selective, with emphasis on critical works published in the twentieth century. Contents include a preface explaining the guide, followed by the main sections: "Bibliographies,…

The author's doctoral dissertation started out as qualitative research--interviews with beginning women teachers exploring the transition from teacher education into the classroom. She explains why the material could be better conveyed in the form of the bildungsroman, a German term for a novel of formation or education. Chapter five of the…

Children's prose literature in Britain is surveyed from the 17th century to the present. The main stream of this development is exemplified by an examination of the lives and works of such authors as (1) John Newbery, whose books for children include "Goody Two-Shoes" (1766), (2) Mrs. Sherwood, whose didactic books contain a moral lesson in every…