Why Victorian Literature Still Matters

by Philip Davis

Why Victorian Literature Still Matters is a passionate defense of Victorian literature’s enduring impact and importance for readers interested in the relationship between literature and life, reading and thinking.

Genres: Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2008

About the author

Philip Davis is Emeritus Professor of Literature and Psychology at the University of Liverpool where he was Director of the Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society. His publications include Sudden Shakespeare, Shakespeare Thinking, In Mind of Johnson, The Victorians (volume 8 in the new Oxford English Literary History Series), Why Victorian Literature Matters and Reading and The Reader (OUP Literary Agenda Series of which he is general editor). He is currently editing the complete works of Bernard Malamud in three volumes for the Library of America. He is editor of The Reader magazine.

Reviews

[Rachel Lemmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why Victorian Literature Still Matters is a book that argues for the relevance of Victorian literature in the modern world. Some of the nuggets I got from it are unforgettable. I learned a lot about realism and how it still plays an unconscious role in our literature and how it was the keystone of 19th century literature above all.

I found Davis’ writing to be a rather confusing or heady at times. But it’s well worth it to soldier through the weeds to be able to get the bits of wisdom and insight he provides.

Overall, an interesting and eye opening look into realism and Victorian literature.

[Rocío G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admire Davis's willingness to take up slightly unfashionable critical concerns and champion what he calls the "sheer human content" of Victorian writing. With brisk engaging prose he touches on the Victorian qualities of 'wavering protagonists', shifts of realization, conscious inmersedness in history, in-betweenness, mingled anxiety, faith, despair and purpose, and the power of creative reading.

[Catherine Siemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good question, and though Davis's answers aren't necessarily mine (he engages with that academic bete noir of "relatability" though in a sophisticated way), they are valuable ones.

[Patrik · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a nice book but most of the arguments seem to me applicable to other periods as well (I can imagine them in a book called Why Elizabethan Literature Still Matters and so on).

[Andreea]

I will find out some other time.