Giving readers a fascinating look deep into Victorian England, this critical edition of Walter Besant’s Children of Gibeon is ideally suited to courses in Victorian literature and history. The book includes several features to aid students in understanding the novel as both a literary work and an insightful exploration of important issues in Victorian society, including the role of women, poverty, inequality, and urban development. These features include:
A critical introduction
Annotations explaining Victorian terminology and events
Contemporary reviews of the novel
Contextualizing historical documents
Appendices covering literary and social contexts, working-class domestic interiors, and middle-class domesticity
By immersing themselves in Besant’s tale of Lady Mildred Eldridge and her two daughters, one of whom is actually adopted from her former servant, students will gain fascinating insights into Victorian life. Following the tale of Violet and Valentine, who bear a striking resemblance to one another, students participate in a literary puzzle in which the truth of their origins reveals itself to the reader even as the characters remain in the dark. The story of the two girls is also a story of Victorian London–a city torn by geographic and economic divides.
The unique literary, social, and historical perspectives provided by this annotated edition also make the book suitable for classes in nineteenth-century history, material culture, and gender studies.
Kevin A. Morrison is Assistant Professor of English at Syracuse University. He has published a number of essays on Victorian literature and culture in scholarly journals, including Novel: A Forum on Fiction and Victorian Literature and Culture. His interest in Walter Besant stems from a summer study-abroad course he teaches on slums, slumming, and social exploration in Victorian London’s East End, and from a book project tentatively titled Embodied Causes: The Celebrity Culture of Victorian Social Reform.
