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Featured articles ‘Man is not truly one, but truly two’: duality in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Curator Greg Buzwell considers duality in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, exploring how the novel engages with contemporary debates about evolution, degeneration, consciousness, homosexuality and criminal psychology. Read more William Blake's radical politics The French Revolution inspired London radicals and reformers to increase their demands for change. Others called for moderation and stability, while the government tried to suppress radical activity. Professor Andrew Lincoln describes the political environment in which William Blake was writing. Read more Ghosts in A Christmas Carol The ghosts in A Christmas Carol are by turns comic, grotesque and allegorical. Professor John Mullan reflects on their essential role in developing the novel’s meaning and structure. Read more Gothic motifs What does it mean to say a text is Gothic? Professor John Bowen considers some of the best-known Gothic novels of the late 18th and 19th centuries, exploring the features they have in common, including marginal places, transitional time periods and the use of fear and manipulation. Read more Perversion and degeneracy in The Picture of Dorian Gray Many reviewers denounced Oscar Wilde’s novel as perverse and immoral. Roger Luckhurst explores the work’s sexual and moral ambiguities. Read more Oliver Twist: a patchwork of genres Dr Claire Wood examines how Dickens blends multiple genres in Oliver Twist, including melodrama, the Gothic, satire and social commentary. Read more Daughters of decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle Free-spirited and independent, educated and uninterested in marriage and children, the figure of the New Woman threatened conventional ideas about ideal Victorian womanhood. Greg Buzwell explores the place of the New Woman – by turns comical, dangerous and inspirational – in journalism and in fiction by writers such as Thomas Hardy, George Gissing and Sarah Grand. Read more Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and the Villa Diodati Greg Buzwell describes the bizarre circumstances that gave rise to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and the other works that emerged from the ‘ghost story challenge’ at the Villa Diodati in the summer of 1816. Read more Prostitution What was the place of prostitution in 19th-century society? Judith Flanders looks at documents and publications that provide an insight into attitudes towards the profession. Read more Print culture In the 19th century, more people were reading more publications than ever before. Dr Matthew Taunton explains how technological, social and educational change made this possible. Read more The Cries of London The Gentle Author explores William Marshall Craig’s Cries of London prints, which portray the realities of life for street traders in the early 19th century. Read more The Peterloo Massacre In August 1819 dozens of peaceful protestors were killed and hundreds injured at what became known as the Peterloo Massacre. Ruth Mather examines the origins, response and aftermath of this key early 19th century political event. Read more Themes From Romantic poetry to Gothic horror, from depictions of poverty and industrialisation to portrayals of the middle classes, and from crime fiction to fin de siècle decadence: the literary works of the Romantic and Victorian periods, and the contexts in which they were written, offer a wealth of topics to explore. Fin de siècle How did the literature of this period reflect attitudes to gender, sexuality, immigration, class and scientific discovery? Read more The Gothic What are the key motifs of Gothic literature and how do these works reflect the contexts in which the genre emerged and evolved? Read more Power and politics How did writers respond to the tumultuous political events of this period? Read more Reading and print culture How did rising literacy rates, libraries and new technologies influence literature and reading habits during this period? Read more The novel 1832–1880 How did the writers of this period incorporate fantasy, realism, sensationalism, and social commentary into their work? Read more Childhood and children's literature Was children’s literature intended to entertain or instruct? Read more View all themes Collection items Explore manuscripts, first editions, illustrations, playbills, and much more... A lock of Percy Bysshe Shelley's hair and an alleged fragment of his ashes, together with a lock of Mary Shelley's hair estimated 1822 A Dictionary of the Slang and Cant Languages Advertisement for Warren's Blacking Warehouse with cockerel crest An Analysis of Country Dancing Brontë juvenilia: 'The Young Men's Magazine No. Third' 23 August 1830 Broadside about the Albion Mills fire View all collection items Authors Charles Dickens Jane Austen Oscar Wilde View all authors Works of literature Jane Eyre Created by: Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë’s (1816–1855) iconic novel of 1847 is subtitled ‘An Autobiography’. It ... Frankenstein Created by: Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1797–1851), later Mary Shelley, devised this Gothic novel in 1816 while staying at ... 'Ode to a Nightingale' Created by: John Keats John Keats (1795-1821) composed this poem one morning in early May 1819, when he was still mourning the death of his ... 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