This course is an introductory course for students to explore English literature in the Victorian age. Because of the enormous breadth and range of the literary work associated with the period, the course is only able to offer a limited sample of representative pieces in each genre: including a select range of poems, two novels, a prose essay, and a play. The first part of the course focuses on canonical poems of the period, including poets such as Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning and Lord Alfred Tennyson. The second half examines the lighter verses as well as two novels and a play. The selection reflects not only the literary issues, but also some of the key cultural and social agendas of the time. It is a step towards understanding one of the most colourful, challenging, and contradictory ages in British history.