In matters of character Victorians prized respectability, earnestness, a sense of duty and public service; most would have regarded an industrious, pious conventionality as the best road not only to material recompense but to heavenly rewards as well. ... For the Victorians, the modern distinction between the literary novel and the popular best seller had not yet come into existence. ... The dominance of the novel in this age of print emerged also from the intimate connection between the particular form of the Victorian novel, which can best be called "realism," with the desires, aspirations,...

• Word Count: 6746
• Approx Pages: 27