The Oxford English literary history

This and the accompanying volume inaugurate a major new Oxford series on literary history - looking at both canonical and non-canonical writings in their historical context. These are books that every serious student and scholar of the period will need on their shelves. Philip Davis demonstrates how the power of Victorian literature - not just the riches of its novels and poetry but also non-fiction writings from Darwin to Ruskin and Mill - lies in its gift of asking great questions with a personal insistence: about society and the individual, democracy and industrialism, the existence of God, and the purpose of human life. Davis reveals how the literary voice of the Victorian age gives expression to a culminating crisis of the Western conscience.