The volumes in this series explore the scope and variety of the great novels of the nineteenth century. The essays in this collection, Realisms, trace the experimentation of nineteenth-century writers in advancing new modes of realist fiction while revitalizing the inheritance of the Gothic and the Romantic. Focusing on some of the most popular novels of the century ( Northanger Abbey, Jayne Eyre, Dombey and Son, Middlemarch, Far from the Madding Crowd and Germinal ), this attractive volume explores some of the recurring themes in nineteenth-century fiction: * aspiration and vocation * social class * sexual politics * Political reform * colonialism and commerce. This is an ideal introduction to some of the major fictional achievements of the first industrial era, and to most of the crucial themes in nineteenth-century fiction. If you are a student of the novels of this period, you will find this volume an indispensable source.