The Victorian age was a period of transition as Britain industrialized and society underwent profound changes. Here, contemporary voices provide students with an up-close look at this pivotal time.

Voices of Victorian England illuminates the character, personalities, and events of the era through excerpts from primary documents produced between 1837 and 1901. By allowing Queen Victoria’s contemporaries to speak for themselves, this work brings the achievements and conflicts that occurred during the queen’s long reign alive for high school and college students as well as the general public.

Excerpts represent literary giants such as Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, and Anthony Trollope. The book covers the worlds of politics, religion, economics, and science, and addresses subjects such as women’s issues and the royal family. Documents include letters, poems, speeches, polemics, reviews, novels, official reports, and self-help guides, as well as descriptive narratives of people and events from England, Scotland, Ireland, and, where pertinent, America and continental Europe. Spelling has been modernized and unfamiliar terms defined, and questions and commentary provide background and context for each document. In addition, the book offers tools that will help readers effectively evaluate a document’s meaning and importance.

Presents and comments on 68 excerpts from primary documents of the Victorian era, 1837-1901

Details selected topics-such as Victorian Ireland, Social Darwinism, the marriage market, and homosexuality-in numerous sidebars

Points readers to books and websites that can expand their understanding of a document and relate it to themes and issues in modern life

Suggests methods students can use to successfully incorporate the documents into school research and reading projects

Includes a chronology listing important dates and events from the birth of Princess Victoria in 1819 to the end of the Boer War in 1902