by Gail Cunningham
Where the Restoration and Enlightenment periods were dominated in literary terms by drama and poetry, the 19th century was indisputably the age of the novel. When Anthony Trollope noted in 1870 'that novels are in the hands of us all; from the Prime Minister down to the last appointed scullery-maid' he was drawing attention both to the pervasive cultural and social importance of fiction and, implicitly, to the immense range of novels available to what was by then a mass reading public. Not only did the novel form produce a consistent stream of major practitioners (of whom an uncontroversial listing would include Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy), it also gave expression to a huge variety of discourse from writers of less established reputation. Fiction in the 19th century could address every topic, enter every dispute, reflect every ideal of an age perceived by