GENERAL INTRODUCTION
In introducing this Guide to English Literature, it is as well to remember that this is the age of the Digest and the Headline, of the Comic and the Tabloid, of the Bestseller and the Month's Masterpiece: an age when a 'deep-seated spiritual vulgarity... lies at the heart of our civilization' in the words of the novelist, L. H. Myers.

NOTES ON THE VICTORIAN SCENE
G. D. Klingopulos
Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University College of South Wales, Cardiff
The centuries of history do not appear all equally relevant to us, and the impression of relevance itself tends to change.