Includes bibliographical references (pages 232-246) and index.
Contents
Introduction: the case of the poisonous book -- Gothic toxins: The castle of Otranto, The monk, and Caleb Williams -- The reading monster -- How Oliver Twist learned to read, and what he read -- Poor Jack, poor Jane: representing the working class and women in early and mid-Victorian novels -- Cashing in on the real in Thackeray and Trollope -- Novel sensations of the 1860s -- The educations of Edward Hyde and Edwin Reardon -- Overbooked versus bookless futures in late-Victorian fiction.