British Academy publishes ‘French novels and the Victorians’

French Novels and the Victorians, by Dr Juliette Atkinson, traces the fortunes of French fiction in England between 1830 and 1870.

Many assume that the permissive nature of French novels set them at odds with prudish Victorian England, but Dr Atkinson argues that the extent to which Gallic literature was rejected has been greatly exaggerated. This new work explores how French fiction came into the hands of English readers and challenged the boundaries and identity of England’s national literature.

Dr Juliette Atkinson is a lecturer at UCL and a former British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow (2009-2012).

French Novels and the Victorians is part of the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship monograph series and is published by Oxford University Press.