Comments & Queries

Comments & Queries are welcome via e-mail. Our address is victstu@indiana.edu.

On the Cover are the “System of Sociolatry” from Auguste Comte’s The Catechism of Positive Religion, trans. Richard Congreve, London: Chapman, 1863 and “A Feminine Philosopher,” Vanity Fair 29 Mar. 1873. On the back cover is “Pernicious Nonsense,” Punch 3 Nov. 1866.

Changes at VS: With the advent of a new volume, we say goodbye to two lovely VS editors. Between clandestine meetings with intelligence agents, Maureen Hattrup wrote a series of such delicately composed, diplomatic emails for her colleagues in the office that we hope to publish an edited collection of them and organize a book review forum around that collection. We wish her happy dissertating as she continues her work on Victorian historiography. Stephanie Koscak, Book Review Editor and Chief Chalkboard Cover Mockup Master, departs for a year full of fellowships and research as she completes both her dissertation on visual representations of the British monarchy and the pilot of a sitcom based on her time in the VS office. We will miss her infectious love of cicadas and the VB, and we wish her the best of luck in her quest to become a gypsy bride. Stephanie and Maureen, we’re trying our best to drink your milkshake. Be pros, not schmoes.

Now Managing Editor, Matt Kaul spends most of his time constructing elaborate checklists in the hope of not derailing the VS publication schedule. NO MORE LATE!1!! When not memorizing chapters of the MLA Handbook, he’s writing a dissertation on Victorian literature and secularism.

Beth Bevis stepped into the position of Assistant Managing Editor while finishing her last semester of coursework this fall. Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, she predictably enjoys hiking and high quality espresso. Her research and writing focus on narrative style in Victorian representations of religious belief.

Now Book Review Editor, Jeanette Samyn continues to search for birds of prey outside the VS office window. She is working on a dissertation on nineteenth-century literature and parasites.

Brian Eschrich, our new Assistant Book Review Editor, is gradually adjusting to this new (for him) thing called “the morning.” Brian is working on a dissertation on the writing and cultural dissemination of Victorian philosophy.

This autumn we have also had the privilege of working with two excellent undergraduate interns.

Emma McClure is a senior majoring in English and Philosophy. From this internship with VS, she has acquired many useful skills, but she takes particular pride in her newfound ability to tweet (in house style, of course)! She is overjoyed to have had this opportunity to scour the internet for news of the Victorian era and to hone her skill for terrible puns. Never will she forget that she is but a mouse-click away from treasures like a Victorian mansion made entirely of Legos. (Look it up, or better still, follow VS on Twitter!) All jobs should be so much fun. For this and many other enjoyable memories, she would like to thank Matt, Jeanette, Brian, and, especially, Beth.

Karen A. Groth will graduate in May with degrees in English and Germanic Studies. During her short stay at VS, she has cultivated her cross-reading acumen and completely embraced house style. She intends to continue VS’ tradition of editorial excellence elsewhere as she tries her fortunes on the job market. She is extremely grateful to Beth, Matt, Brian, and Jeanette for their indulgence in permitting her to experiment with academic publishing, and, of course, for their congenial company.

As always, Victorian Studies thanks the Indiana University Honors College, without whose generous support our internship program would not be possible.

The Ends of History, a Special Issue of Victorian Studies:

In the 1980s and 1990s, literary critics and historians occupied a relatively integrated conceptual space through the rise of cultural studies and the “new historicism.” If this interdisciplinary framework was never seamless, “historicization” nonetheless represented a critical project equally palpable to history and literary criticism. The last decade or so, however, has found many critics seeking the revival of form as a key...