Victorians 101 is the new book from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen annotator Jess Nevins. Nevins also wrote the absolutely indispensable
The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana. If you can ever find a way to get your hands on a copy, DO SO.
I have a great fondness for role playing games set in that milieu, and you literally cannot help but be inspired flipping through that thing. If I could afford it, I'd try to get it back in print myself.
Nevins also wrote some supplementary material for Savage Worlds RPG, and can also be found writing essays in the back of all Ed Brubaker's comics.
His new book,
Victorians 101 purports to be a nice, introductory survey of Victorian literature. Which, in my experience, is a decidedly mixed bag. Nice of him to read the Brontes and the Dickenes of the world, I'll leave those happily back in my English Literature to 1900 class in college.
A book like this is probably less likely to have RPG-creation food in it than the aforementioned encyclopedia, but it will no doubt end up convincing me to read some terrible 200 year old novel, which I'm sure is a mark of the quality of the piece. PLUS, the Gothics!!! C'mon now.
Victorians 101 Table of Contents Revealed
