“In serious Victorian fiction, as in Shakespearian tragedy, melodrama normally functions as metaphor. The author finds a vivid equivalent for a reality too elaborate or too extended to be briefly depicted.” — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“Because it is written by a nineteenth-century American, and because of its closeness to the twentieth century, The Portrait of a Lady foregoes Victorian… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“Reading Mrs Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë after Jane Eyre is a curious experience. The subject of the biography is recognisably the same person… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“Nowhere is the sense of medium felt more strongly, even by the casual reader, than in a story about to end. For the novelist… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“Wuthering Heights, however it may appear in retrospect, demands a reading of the utmost intensity, the feeling present in the writing seems to seek… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“Discussions of the effects of serial publication of Victorian novels on their authors and readers1 usually draw attention to the author's peculiar opportunities for… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“Indeed, and crucially so, the serial form took the control of the novel away from the reader and left him in an imagined space… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“The first unanalysed impression that most readers receive from Jane Eyre is that it has a very violent atmosphere. If this were simply the… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“What The Mysteries of Udolpho suggests is how a novel, by presenting phenomena before it present resolutions, can create an on-going, perhaps spurious, but… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“Novels begin and end with, consist of, and indeed in one sense are nothing but voices. So reading is learning to listen sensitively, and… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“We are always sure that the heroine is fiery and passionate, which is quite an achievement when the plot has had to keep her… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“Length, I want to suggest, has a peculiar significance for the reader of a Victorian novel and especially so if we are concerned with… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
“The loudness of tone in Jane Eyre is undoubtedly effective in communicating tension and frustration, but the style does of course have its related… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
