ABSTRACT

Since the Booker success of A.S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance in 1990, neo-Victorian fiction has emerged as a significant and popular genre of contemporary fiction; every year more and more novels appear that engage with the Victorian era and its literature through Victorian themes, characters or settings. Although there is an element of nostalgia, these novels do not merely seek to revive the Victorian era or its literary modes; rather, they effect a transformation of it. Strategies range from direct transformations of Victorian texts, in the form of sequels or prequels and contemporary rewrites of Victorian novels, to indirect transformations in novels that engage more broadly with the Victorian era. Whichever strategy is adopted, neo-Victorian novels never simply replicate the Victorian modes they engage with but, rather, enter into a complex dialogue with those modes. Their engagement with the Victorian era remains rooted in an awareness of the contemporary moment in which the novels are produced. Thus, neo-Victorian fiction embodies a dual approach; it explores both the contemporary and the Victorian context.