Victorian women's magazines : an anthology /

Reprinting pieces from 19th-century magazines, mainly published in London, aimed specifically at women, this book is in two parts. Part 1 is a taxonomy of the various kinds of magazines for women: fashion, drawing-room journals, general illustrated magazines, religious publications, ladies' papers, feminist journals, young women's and girls' magazines, and cheap domestic magazines. Part 2 is organized on the various elements of the magazine: masthead and cover, discursive prose, prose fiction, fashion, poetry, advice columns and readers' letters, political journalism, reviews, advertisements, competitions, illustrated biography, and personal interviews. Among the 43 illustrations are reproductions of covers, a particularly interesting feature since the covers are often not included in bound volumes in libraries. A bibliography of 319 titles gives dates of runs, frequency of publication, price, and, in some cases, names of founding editors; unfortunately, locations of runs are not included. This is an especially useful book because it provides readers with samples of magazines that are difficult to access. It should interest students and scholars of 19th-century British culture, upper-division undergraduates through faculty. J. D. Vann University of North Texas