From Jane Austen's Persuasion to George Eliot's Middlemarch, the nineteenth century marks the rise of the novel as the dominant form of Western literature. This engaging text offers readers a close analysis of novels that are uniquely representative of the time period, including the work of Austen, Eliot, Scott, Thackeray, Gaskell, Dickens, Trollope, Braddon, and the Bront毛 sisters. An indispensable resource for students and teachers alike, this accessible guidebook: places strong emphasis on the distinctive perspectives and discursive practices of narrators; provides in-depth analyses of individual passages; highlights the differences between the assumptions and experiences of the era in which the novels were written and those of the modern reader; draws key distinctions between novelists; explore significant theoretical approaches such as Foucauldian, Postcolonial, Bakhtinian, and feminist criticism; and offers an overview of the social, economic, and political change that influence the fiction of the time. (Publisher)