This text contains essays on writers from the 1840s to the 1890s, and includes well-known writers such as Anne Bronte, Wilkie Collins, and Bram Stoker, as well as lesser known writers such as Geraldine Jewsbury, Charles Reade, Margaret Oliphant, George Moore, Sarah Grand and Mary Ward. The contributors explore important thematic concerns such as the relationship between private and public realms, gender and social class, sexuality and the marketplace, and male and female cultural identity.