This course is designed to explore aspects of nineteenth-century literature and culture in some depth and to a degree of critical sophistication appropriate to a third-year unit. It will range across a number of genres including novels, poetry, journalism, science writing, autobiography, history, art criticism and introduce elements of contemporary visual culture. The course is arranged into pairs of linked sessions, the first session of each pair introducing an aspect of nineteenth-century social through and cultural practice (generally through non-fictional prose) and the second exploring a major nineteenth-century text in the light of these ideas. The course concentrates on the period from the late 1830s to the early 1870s.