What Victorian Novel?

Abstract: This essay rethinks the idea of the Victorian novel, arguing that this category and its conventional definition—realist, English, canonical—have obscured key aspects of novel history. Drawing on early twentieth-century surveys and criticism, I track how the "Victorian novel" emerged and was consolidated in critical history as a largely twentieth-century artifact. Using Priya Joshi's In Another Country (2002), I argue that the global book historical record contains evidence that novel theory has not yet incorporated: namely, realism's position as only one of many major novel genres in the period, and the global realities of the "Victorian" publishing market.