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Jess Nevins’ mammoth survey of Victorian popular fiction is a hugely entertaining and handy tome for anyone with more than a passing interest in the era and its bewildering array of literary heroes and villains. As the title suggests this is in fact a straightforward encyclopedia, featuring listings and write-ups summarizing background, explaining character traits, etc…for hundreds of characters, ranging from the obvious to the obscure. Perhaps a bit less objective than I’d like, with Nevins’ in...
This book is big. Really big. Vastly and hugely big. You may think it's a long way down to the chemists, but that's peanuts compared to The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana. I've looked up so many entries and each time I do, I find myself wandering about to other random entries. Cracking into this book requires time (and a wheelbarrow), but it's time well spent. Rather like wandering through an information maze and finding little prizes at the end of the dead-stops throughout. Jess knows his...
Holy CRAP this book is amazing. Way too much text to really process in a chunk; as a reference book to those interested in Victorian culture, pulp fiction, or any kind of popular literature, it absolutely can't be beat. It absolutely boggles my mind to see the level of scholarship that goes in to a book like this. Introduction by Michael Moorcock gets it extra points.
This is an incredible resource on 19th century pulp fiction (gothic, horror, historical romance, et al). I can scarcely imagine the amount of time and energy that went into this work, and it is a very complete reference. The author makes numerous judgement calls and critical reviews throughout the book (many of which are quite funny), but expressing his opinion so openly may irk some readers. This book is pretty scarce on the used market (and expensive), but it's well worth it if you're a fan of...
an essential companion and reference when digging through 19c sf/f pulp/genre stuff. if you wanted to take the "every story ever" approach, this is one of the texts to consult. get the second edition
James
The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana is a marvel: a comprehensive reference guide to authors, characters, and works of the fantastic in Victorian times, stuffed to bursting with tidbits and nuggets of information about those folks who laid much of the groundwork for today’s literature of the fantastic. 1200 pages, people! And did I mention it’s pretty? So very, very pretty.
Awesome, comprehensive encyclopedia of Victorian era literature and also the literature that inspired it. Make no mistake though, this is a huge book that will take at least a month to read and I'll be damned if I understand how a relatively young man like Jess Nevins managed to read through that many books and produce this monster book by the age of 39! This is a magnum opus, life's work kind of book and would've been impressive even if it was the only book he ever wrote.
A thick, beautiful, well-researched comprehensive look at British and European sci-fi, pulp and fantasy in the Victorian era. If you're the least bit interested in any of those, pick it up.
Really effin' love this book. Great info on a lot of great characters. Complaints would be the amount of space given to some characters over others and an index without page numbers. Its statedly written in a personal opinion matter which is actually preferable and engaging for my kind of reading - it reads more like a conversation with or lecture by Nevins as opposed to a collection of dry summaries.
Though no encyclopedia can claim to be truly exhaustive, this fantastic work by Jess Nevins is incredible in its breadth as well as in terms of incisiveness. Despite Nevins'somewhat apologetic note regarding being subjective, it is my opinion that that is the only way by which the Victorian literature can be made vivid enough to oversome the fog and gaslight. This work is magnificient in all aspects. Enjoy it.
Probably the most amazing collection of Victorian "pulp" fiction references available. A good reference book for anyone interested in this time period (or trying to decipher references to this time period).
Reading encyclopediae is not normally my bag, but Jess Nevins' masterpiece of genre research begged to be made an exception. Nevins, a research librarian, started out on the web publishing annotations for Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, and they were so good, that Moore himself noticed them and wrote forewards for them when they were published. By this time, however, Nevins had also begun casting his net more widely, compiling information on fantastical literature of the V...
Hard to find now, I was lucky to be able to get a copy when it first came out. This is THE reference work to have on the subject of Victorian Authors, their books and their characters in the realm of fantastic fiction.
Completely awesome. This book will steal months of your life.
Ah, Jess. How I do crush on thee!The perfect reference source for a dorky Victorianist.Thanks to Robert for sending this my way.
I really like this book and all of stories it references that I had never read or even heard of.
