Victorian Readings

Victorian literature began to explore what Matthew Arnold called ‘this strange disease of modern life’ as early as the 1850s. This course explores a broad range of British literature from the reign of Queen Victoria in the full historical, social, political and religious context of this remarkable age. The selected texts include poetry from Alfred, Lord Tennyson to W.B. Yeats and novels from Charles Dickens to Oscar Wilde. Famous, infamous and obscure works will be discussed in relation to nineteenth-century developments in art, architecture, science and technology, making use of the abundant resources that Oxford has to offer.