Set in the northern countryside of Victorian-era England, this spellbinding novel of good and evil, wealth and want, and the profound power of love is another major achievement in the career of one of the world's most widely read and beloved authors.

    In an age of rapid scientific progress, the idea of a vindictive past able to reach out and violate the present held a special potential for terror. Throughout the nineteenth century, fictional ghost stories developed in parallel with the more general Victorian fascination with death and what lay beyond it. Though they were as much a part of the cultural and literary fabric of the age as imperial confidence, the best of the stories still retain their original power to surprise and unsettle. In Victorian Ghost Stories, the editors map out the development of the ghost story from 1850 to the early years of the twentieth century and demonstrate the importance of this form of short fiction in Victorian popular culture. As well as reprinting stories by supernatural specialists such as J. S. Le Fanu and M. R. James, this selection emphasizes the key role played by women writers--including Elizabeth Gaskell, Rhoda Broughton, and Charlotte Riddell--and offers one or two genuine rarities. Other writers represented include Charles Dickens, Henry James, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and R. L. Stevenson. There is also a fascinating Introduction and a chronological list of ghost story collections from 1850 to 1910.Includes:The old nurse's story by Elizabeth GaskellAn account of some strange disturbances in Aungier Street by J.S. Le FanuThe miniature by J.Y. AkermanThe last house in C-Street by Dinah MulockTo be taken with a grain of salt by Charles DickensThe Botathen ghost by R.S. HawkerThe truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth by Rhoda BroughtonThe romance of certain old clothes by Henry JamesPichon & Sons, of the Croix Rousse by AnonymousReality or delusion? by Mrs Henry WoodUncle Cornelius, his story by George MacDonaldThe shadow of a shade by Tom HoodAt Chrighton Abbey by Mary Elizabeth BraddonNo living voice by Thomas Street MillingtonMiss Jéromette and the clergyman by Wilkie CollinsThe story of Clifford House by AnonymousWas it an illusion? by Amelia B. EdwardsThe open door by Charlotte RiddellThe captain of the "Pole-star" by Sir Arthur Conan DoyleThe body-snatcher by Robert Louis StevensonThe story of the rippling train by Mary Louisa MolesworthAt the end of the passage by Rudyard Kipling"To let" by B.M. CrokerJohn Charrington's wedding by E. NesbitThe haunted organist of Hurly Burly by Rosa MulhollandThe man of science by Jerome K. JeromeCanon Alberic's scrap-book by M.R. JamesJerry Bundler by W.W. JacobsAn Eddy on the floor by Bernard CapesThe tomb of Sarah by F.G. LoringThe case of Vincent Pyrwhit by Barry PainThe shadows on the wall by Mary E. WilkinsFather Macclesfield's tale by R.H. BensonThurnley Abbey by Perceval LandonThe kit-bag by Algernon Blackwood

    He was superbly handsome, fabulously wealthy, overwhelmingly seductive. He cut a dazzling swath through Victorian London—and wove a web of desire around beautiful and proud Lady Sara St. James, pledged to wed another man.In Peregrine's arms Sara learned the meaning of forbidden passion—and forbidding mystery. Only the burning power of love could pierce Peregrine's chilling silence about his secret past and hidden purpose...as Sara plunged into a whirlpool of yearning and uncertainty with a man who was everything a woman could want or fear...

    

    When Vorne Asleigh, the successor to his father's fortune and Knightshill, the ancestral home, meets a hero's death at Khartoum leaving his family without a suitable successor, the Ashleighs begin a passionate fight for survival.

    Yet in his lifetime he was almost entirely unpublished, and only a handful of his close friends knew that he wrote poetry at all. On his death, many of Hopkins' poems, together with most of his other papers, were burned by his fellow Jesuits who did not realize what they had in their midst; and they were to guard closely what remained, until now. Robert Bernard Martin is the first biographer to have had unrestricted access to Hopkins' surviving papers. The result is as complete a biography of this astonishingly immediate poet as we are ever likely to achieve. It is also, in places, revelatory. Martin shows that the homosexuality many have found latent in Hopkins' poetry blossomed in his undergraduate love for a flamboyant friend Digby Dolben. He also shows how, though Hopkins' chaotic psyche needed the structure which life as a Jesuit gave him, the severity of its discipline inevitably constricted his creative faculty, at times almost to the point of strangulation. Despite the obscurity of Hopkins' life, his surviving work marks him as a central figure in English literature.

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    All that remained was for him to meet her mother. But when they were invited for a weekend at the Castle, Mrs. Mansforde refused to leave young Mena behind—much to her sister's chagrin! To settle the dispute, a plot was hatched. Masquerading as her mother's Companion, Mena quickly became a part of Castle life...and love blossomed—suddenly and miraculously—when she helped a stable-boy who had been thrown from his horse. But Mena cannot reveal her true self and for now, the glorious passion brewing between them must wait...

    A cat's album of Victorian life.

    

    Chariton explores the great Texas airship adventure from beginning to end and retells the story exactly as it unfolded in 1897.

    Yet he had by then enjoyed fame and notoriety in almost equal amounts, and his contemporary Max Beerbohm dubbed the 1890s the "Beardsley Era." Since that time Beardsley's art has grown in popularity so that by the 1960s no self-respecting student room was without an Isolde or Peacock Skirt poster, and his sinuous, black-and-white drawings were familiar to millions... In Beardsley, the author tells the story of Beardsley's life, and describes some of the artistic influences which shaped his style. Photographs of Beardsley, portraits of him by some of his artist friends, early and preparatory sketches, and important contemporary paintings and drawings all bring this tale to life. This is complemented by a selection of sixty of Beardsley's black-and-white illustrations, from the medieval Morte Darthur, through Salome and the startlingly erotic Lysistrata, to the delicate "embroideries" to the Rape of the Lock and Volpone. Along with color lithographic posters and book jackets, these make this a delightful tribute to this tragic fin-de-siecle figure.

    In advancing his argument Jenkyns turns our accepted notions of the Victorians upside down, presenting Ruskin as an admirer of Greek statuary, the Houses of Parliament as a classical rather than a Gothic composition, and Thomas Woolner, the only sculptor among the original Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, as a neo-Hellenic carver and poet. Jenkyns moves effortlessly between the general and the particular and is refreshingly unafraid to make judgments. Here are some of the best descriptions of Victorian painting, sculpture, and architecture to have appeared in recent years. From the very gradual changes throughout the paintings of Leighton and Alma-Tadema, to the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, the 'aesthetic scripture' of Pater, and even the advertisements for Beecham's pills, Jenkyns shows how what had been merely eclectic became a distinctive fin-de-siecle style and eventually began to point the way for Modernism. These are grand themes, presented by a masterly guide. Above all Jenkyns is entertaining: Dignity and Decadence is one of the most illuminating and enjoyable books about the Victorians yet to appear.

    But Mill was only the most notable British Victorian to suffer from shattered nerves, for depression appears again and again in nineteenth-century history and literature, among men and women of all classes. It was a problem that doctors struggled to understand and treat--largely unsuccessfully. Their debates over the nature of depression, Janet Oppenheim writes, offer us a unique window on the Victorian mind. In Shattered Nerves, Oppenheim looks at how British doctors and patients tried to make sense of depression in an era of limited psychological knowledge and intense social prejudices. Ranging from the dawn of the Victorian era to the First World War, she draws on letters, memoirs, medical reports, literature, and many other sources to paint a detailed portrait of the slowly evolving knowledge of mental illness. She reveals how a host of nerve specialists searched for the physical causes of mental depression--even the term nervous breakdown came from the belief that mental health depended on maintaining supplies of nerve force, much like recharging a battery. Especially interesting are her rich descriptions of the impact of Victorian prejudices on the ways in which doctors and patients viewed depression. Overwork and worries about money and other manly responsibilities were seen as acceptable causes of nervous collapse among men--in contrast to the range of sexual causes, including masturbation, which Victorian doctors frequently found at the root of male mental illness. Women, it was assumed, were naturally prone to hysteria and depression--and if they made the mistake of competing with men or pursuing higher education, then mental derangement was sure to follow. On the other hand, Oppenheim also reveals a number of surprises about Victorian medical thinking: For instance, even though Freud's revolution went largely ignored in Britain before the First World War, many physicians considered sexual abstinence to be unhealthy. She also points out that anorexia nervosa was identified as early as 1873 and was extensively discussed before the turn of the century. The nineteenth century was a critical period in the evolution of modern thought about the mind and the body, an era when medical knowledge grew rapidly but human psychology remained enigmatic. In exploring how Victorians addressed this problem, Shattered Nerves provides valuable insight into the way they saw their world.

    

    Although some of the photographs are studio portraits by the leading photographers of the day there are photographs of middle-class Victorians too: intellectuals, artists, eccentrics, and businessmen, whose sober, practical garb is in telling contrast to the lavish fabrics and impractical designs worn by high society. The source of illustration is the National Portrait Gallery Archive which contains a collection of over 100,000 photographs and original negatives. Sarah Levitt's selection principally comprises photographs never before published. It also contains some unfamiliar images of well-known historical figures, such as Henry Irving, Queen Victoria, Camille Saint-Sa�ns, Lillie Langtry and many more. Each photograph is accompanied by a full caption that not only describes both costume and accessories, but also goes on to explain how and where the clothes were made; what they felt like to wear; how the fashions developed; and how the clothes were cleaned and cared for. To do this, the author has supported original research with contemporary quotations and anecdotes from diaries, fashion magazines, newspapers and other Victorian memorabilia. This book is an absorbing and informative account of the fashion and social history of this period, and will be enjoyed by everyone interested in fashion, photography, and the Victorian age.

    Although some of the photographs are studio portraits by the leading photographers of the day, there are also photographs of 'working-class' Victorians: estate workers, nurses, and gamekeepers, whose sober, practical garb is in telling contrast to the lavish fabrics and impractical designs worn by those for whom they worked. The main source of illustrations is the National Portrait Gallery Archive, which contains a collection of over 100,000 photographs and original negatives. Miles Lambert's selection principally comprises photographs never before published. It also contains some unfamiliar images of well-known historical figures, such as the Princess of Wales, Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, John Everett Millais, and many more. Each photograph is accompanied by a full caption that not only describes both costume and accessories in great detail, but also goes on to explain how and where the clothes were made; what they felt like to wear; and how the fashions developed. To do this, the author has supported his original research with contemporary quotations and anecdotes from diaries, fashion magazines, newspapers and other Victorian memorabilia. This book is an absorbing and informative account of the fashion and social history of this period, and will be enjoyed by everyone interested in fashion, photography, and the Victorian age.

    Narrative theory provides no social, historical, or psychological context for omniscience, nor does it attempt to explain the predominance of omniscient narration in nineteenth-century British fiction. Audrey Jaffe uses Dickens's novels and sketches to redefine narrative omniscience as a problematic that has implications for the construction of Victorian subjectivity, giving us new insights into Dickens and into other fiction as well.Jaffe demonstrates that omniscience is the effect of a series of oppositions—between narrator and character, knowledge and its absence, sympathy and irony, privacy and publicity. Showing how these oppositions participate in and enforce Victorian ideas about family, the subject, and private life, this study illuminates connections between ideology and narrative form.