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

Barbara Leah Harman, Susan Meyer

Chapter 1 Words on "Great Vulgar Sheets", SusanMeyer; Chapter 2 At Home upon a Stage, JudithRosen; Chapter 3 Rewriting the Male Plot in Wilkie Collins's no name (1862), DeirdreDavid; Chapter 4 Silent Woman, Speaking Fiction, Laura HanftKorobkin; Chapter 5 Mrs. Oliphant, Miss Marjoribanks (1866), and the Victorian Canon, Joseph H.O'Mealy; Chapter 6 The Vampire in the House, TamarHeller; Chapter 7 Solicitors Soliciting, Jasmine YongHall; Chapter 8 Eliza Lynn Linton, Nancy FixAnderson; Chapter 9 Problems of A "Democratic Text", WimNeetens; Chapter 10 Naturalism in George Moore's A Mummer's Wife (1885), JudithMitchell; Chapter 11 Joy Behind the Screen, Barbara LeahHarman; Chapter 12 Curious Dualities, JohnKucich; Chapter 13 Mapping the "Terra Incognita" of Woman, KateMcCullough; Chapter 14 "Transition Time", JudithWilt; Chapter 15 Mobilizing Chivalry, Nancy L.Paxton;