The VPFA Blog
Welcome to the VPFA Blog! Here we will have ponderings, reflections, speculative readings, and more, for the reading pleasure of our fellow Victorianists.
If you would like to submit an item for the Blog, please email Dr Helena Esser in the first instance, at vpfamedia@gmail.com (FAO: Blog)
Views and opinions expressed in Blog posts are the Authors’ own
In Which...
…We Celebrate the VPFA’s Intellectual Encounters Collected in ‘Re-examining Nineteenth-Century Easts: Gendered Narratives of Encounter’ (2026)
By Claudia Capancioni, with Mariaconcetta Costantini and Julia Kuehn This...
Read More…I Spent a Month at Chawton House!
A reflection by Rebecca Hamilton I spent the entire month...
Read More…Our Live-Tweeters from #VPFAExtremes share their thoughts
Anna Shane writes… This summer, I had the pleasure of...
Read More…I joined the VPFA
A contemplation by Emma Butler-Way There was no possibility of...
Read MoreAdapting the Victorians
The Failure of Institutions: Sweeney Todd Restages the Timeliness of Penny Dreadfuls
Birmingham Rep’s production reviewed by Rebecca Nesvet Victorian melodrama was...
Read MoreTheatre Review | Haunted Shadows: The Gothic Tales of Edith Nesbit. A Monkey with Cymbals, starring Claire Louise Amias, Skipton Town Hall, Saturday 9th May 2026
A review by Jemma Stewart For those of us already...
Read MoreChristmas Won’t Be Christmas without ‘Little Women’…
A subjective ranking of Christmassiness by Emma Butler-Way In my...
Read MoreQueering Hedda Gabler: Victorian Archetypes Colliding
by Helena Esser First off. Run, don’t walk, as the...
Read MoreFun Facts and Bizarre Books
On This Day in the Pages of the Victorians: 19th June
A selection by Emma Butler-Way Even though the years pass,...
Read MoreNeglected Victorian Bestsellers with Roy Reads Anything
Helena Esser interviews Roy Bayfield about the most VPFA book...
Read MoreIs neo-Victorian Fiction getting more unhinged?
Helena Esser ponders three new and three upcoming offerings from...
Read MoreThe Official Ouida Starter Guide
As told by Helena Esser So, this Ouida lady. You’ve...
Read MoreSpeculating Upon...
Exacting Revenge on the Past: 5 Neo-Victorian Horror Novels to Sate Your Anachronistic Rage
Shannon Scott reflects on foreclosing nostalgia while living in unhinged...
Read MorePride Special: Your Queer (neo-) Victorian Vibe!
A quiz by the Third Sex Reading Group In the...
Read MoreWhat can Wes Anderson tell us about the Victorians?
Or: How can I make The Grand Budapest Hotel about...
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