Richard D. Altick, Regents\u27 Professor Emeritus of English at The Ohio State University, is well known for such books as Victorian People and Ideas. His latest work draws from 150 novels to develop connections between people, objects, events, and issues mentioned in fiction and their real life originals in the Victorian period. The generous selection of sources includes not only the best remembered novelists but also such writers as Susan Ferrier, John Galt, Samuel Warren, and Charlotte Yonge. All of Eliot\u27s novels except, of course, Romola, are included.
The material is organized into twenty thematic chapters, ranging from popular entertainments (panoramas, balloon ascents, mechanical exhibitions, animal shows, waxworks) to consumer goods, to names in the news, to current events, to elections and political concerns
