Nineteenth-Century Radical Traditions

"This terrifically readable collection of essays is an authoritative and imaginative intervention in contemporary debates about Victorian literature and culture. The book's individual chapters are characterized by considerable narrative drive as well as scholarly depth, and its Introduction is both a moving tribute to its dedicatee Sally Ledger's life and legacy and an engaged and engaging account of the trajectory of Victorian studies over the last couple of decades. Every Victorianist will want not only to consult the book but to read it closely." (Matthew Beaumont, Department of English, University College London, UK)

Inspired by the work of the radical literary scholar, the late Sally Ledger, this volume provides a commentary on the political traditions that underpin the literature of this complex period, and examines the interpretive methods that are needed to understand them.This book takes a fresh look at the progressive interventions of writers in the nineteenth century. From Cobbett to Dickens and George Eliot, and including a host of lesser known figures – popular novelists, poets, journalists, political activists – writers shared a commitment to exploring the potential of literature as a medium in which to imagine new and better worlds. The essays in this volume ask how we should understand these interventions and what are their legacies in the twentieth and twenty first centuries? Inspired by the work of the radical literary scholar, the late Sally Ledger, this volume provides a commentary on the political traditions that underpin the literature of this complex period, and examines the interpretive methods that are needed to understand them. This timely book contributes to our appreciation of the radical traditions that underpin our literary past.