This study is a comprehensive overview of the literature produced in Canada during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). Whereas previous examinations of this fertile literary period have been discussed in the context of larger, more abstract terms like "early Canadian literature" and "19th century Canadian literature," this book offers a more narrowly focused examination of the kinds of literary shifts and transformations that occurred as British North America pivoted from its colonial beginnings to its new Confederation (and post-Confederation) reality. Focusing on the four main genres – non-fiction, drama, poetry, and prose fiction – this book draws together a rich corpus of notable works in order to illustrate the hybrid nature of the period’s literature. It also seeks to demonstrate the many ways in which Victorian-Canadian writers engaged in trans-Atlantic and transnational literary experimentation.
