Product Description

Critical introductions to a range of literary topics and genres. This book invites readers to reflect on the whole phenomenon of the Victorian novel and its role in dissecting and informing the society which produced it. The reasons for the growth of the novel and its spectacular success is also examined and discussed. Texts and extracts from a selection of Victorian novels and essays, including some material that readers will be unfamiliar with, help to provide a broader understanding of the range of Victorian fiction. Authors include: Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Anthony Trollope and Max Beerbohm.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #276619 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

Used for OCR Synoptic exam jan 2004
This book is pretty much invaluable if you are doing the A2 victorian novel synoptic paper for OCR. We were given these through our school and they are probably the only books that address what you need to know for this paper.
Gives outlines on each topic (education, religion etc) as well as references to many vic novels with quotes etc. Also has refernce to the context of the novels and varying criticism.
Also gives practice extract questions and advice on how to answer them.
At the back is a very helpful timeline in regards to the authors and novels in the vic period.
Definately a must if you are sitting this exam as it is written by the board, although the structure is a bit clumsy still has the right content (think they do these books for all the synoptic topics, they are probably good too). How this helps

May be useful for A Level?
The format of this book leaves a lot to be desired. It gives a lot of useful information on the historical context, etc. and there are a lot of features that are useful - for about half of the book. Then it takes a different turn and becomes very 'novel specific' inasmuch as it only addresses certain titles and analyses them, e.g. Mrs Humphry Ward and Max Beerbohm aren't the most popular texts (as A Level subjects) to analyse. Your syllabus will most probably only be featuring a couple of the books that it covers but (just for the first passages of this book) it will enhance and embellish your understanding of the Victorian novel.