Victorian novels remain enormously popular today. Some continue to be made into films, while authors such as Charles Dickens and George Eliot are firmly established in the canon and taught at all levels. These works have also attracted a great deal of critical attention, with much current scholarship examining the novel in relation to its historical, political, and cultural contexts. This reference work is an introductory guide to the Victorian novel, its background, and its legacy. The first section looks at the emergence of the Victorian novel and its literary precursors, with particular emp.