First published in 1988, this encyclopedia serves as an overview and point of entry to the complex interdisciplinary field of Victorian studies. The signed articles, which cover persons, events, institutions, topics, groups and artefacts in Great Britain between 1837 and 1901, have been written by authorities in the field and contain bibliographies to provide guidelines for further research. The work is intended for undergraduates and the general reader, and also as a starting point for graduates who wish to explore new fields.

Macmillan's Magazine has long been recognized as one of the most significant of the many British literary/intellectual periodicals that flourished in the second half of the nineteenth century. Yet the first volume of the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals (1966) pointed out that 'There is no study of Macmillan's Magazine' - and that lack has been only partially remedied in all the decades since. In this work, George Worth addresses five principal questions. Where did Macmillan's come from, and why in 1859? Who or what was the guiding spirit behind the Magazine, especially in its early, formative years? What cluster of ideas gave it such coherence as it manifested during that period? How did it and its parent firm deal with authors and juggle their periodical work and the books they produced for Macmillan and Co.? And what, finally, accounted for the palpable decline in the quality and fiscal health of Macmillan's during the last 25 years of its life and, ultimately, for its death? Worth includes a treasure trove of original material about the Magazine much of it drawn from unpublished manuscripts and other previously untapped primary sources. Macmillan's Magazine, 1859-1907 contributes to the understanding not only of one significant Victorian periodical but also, more generally, of the literary and cultural milieu in which it originated, flourished, declined, and expired.

By scrutinizing the major Victorian political thinkers' perceptions and representations of France this book shows how comparisons with the country on the other side of the Channel, its politics, civilization, and the French 'national character' contributed to nineteenth-century Britain's self-definition. While the utterances on France of several other figures are also examined, the main focus is on Walter Bagehot, John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold, Lord Acton, Thomas Carlyle, Nassau William Senior, James Fitzjames Stephen, William Rathbone Greg, Thomas Babington Macaulay, John Morley, and Frederic Harrison.