Class, Culture and Suburban Anxieties in the Victorian Era

In this study, Whelan demonstrates the way in which representations of the Victorian suburb in mid- to late-nineteenth century British writing occasioned a literary sub-genre unique to this period that attempted to reassure readers that the suburb was a place where outsiders could be controlled and where middle-class values could be enforced. In particular, Whelan draws attention to the discourse of the suburb as a space of cultural contention in an attempt to illuminate a facet of class history that has often been ignored, overgeneralized, or misunderstood. At the same time, she recontextualizes Victorian fiction for modern readers in light of middle-class suburban anxieties.