Victorian Secrets is an independent publisher dedicated to producing high-quality books from and about the nineteenth century, including critical editions of neglected novels. You can see feedback from some of our happy readers.

This month we made our first venture into narrative non-fiction with the publication of The Perfect Man, a biography of Eugen Sandow, the world’s first professional body-builder, by David Waller the award-winning author of The Magnificent Mrs Tennant.

Our books are available through most online booksellers, and your local friendly bookshop can easily order them in for you. The truly impatient can visit a shop with an Espresso Book Machine and get their hands on a freshly-minted copy in under five minutes.

We are gradually making all our titles available for the Kindle. The Blood of the Vampire, The Dead Man’s Message, Her Father’s Name, Twilight Stories, The Autobiography of Christopher Kirkland, Demos and The Perfect Man have been released. These electronic editions contain the full text and additional material included in the physical versions.

New collection of short stories by Barbara Hardy

http://www.victoriansecrets.co.uk/books/dorotheas-daughter-and-other-nineteenth-century-postscripts/

We’re delighted to announce a new collection of short stories by distinguished literary critic Barbara Hardy.

Dorothea’s Daughter is based on novels by Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy. They are postscripts, rather than sequels, entering into dialogues with the original narratives by developing suggestions in the text. The authors’ conclusions are respected, with no changes made to the plot; instead, Barbara Hardy draws out loose threads in the original fabric to weave new material, imagining moments in the characters’ future lives.

To find out more, please visit the Dorothea’s Daughter webpage.

New critical edition of The Autobiography of Christopher Kirkland

November 22, 2011
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We’re very pleased to announce a new critical edition of Eliza Lynn Linton’s autobiography-in-drag, The Autobiography of Christopher Kirkland, edited by Deborah T. Meem and Kate Holterhoff. In this astonishing work of literary transvestism, Linton adopts a male persona in order to recount her loss of faith at an early age, her sexual relationships with [...]

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New edition of F. Anstey’s Vice Versâ

September 1, 2011
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We’re pleased to announce a new critical edition of F. Anstey’s comic novel Vice Versâ – a story so funny, it is famed for causing Trollope’s fatal stroke (to the modern reader, that could be either an endorsement or a terrible warning). First published in 1882, Vice Versâ shows the disastrous consequences of having one’s [...]

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New edition of A Mummer’s Wife

June 11, 2011
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We are pleased to announce a new critical edition of George Moore’s controversial novel, A Mummer’s Wife. First published in 1885, the novel tells the story of Kate Ede, a bored Midlands housewife unhappily married to an asthmatic draper. When a handsome travelling actor comes to lodge with her family, Kate succumbs to temptation, with [...]

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New edition of Notable Women Authors of the Day

March 31, 2011
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We are very pleased to announce the release of Helen C. Black’s Notable Women Authors of the Day. First published in 1893, Notable Women Authors of the Day began life as a series of interviews published in the popular women’s magazine the Lady’s Pictorial. The 30 featured authors were among the most successful of the late nineteenth century, [...]

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New edition of Demos by George Gissing

March 16, 2011
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We are pleased to announce a new critical edition of George Gissing’s Demos, edited by Debbie Harrison. Demos tells the story of London mechanic and ardent socialist Richard Mutimer, who unexpectedly inherits a fortune at the expense of the presumed heir, aristocratic Hubert Eldon. Mutimer leaves behind his old life to establish a model village for [...]

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New edition of The Light that Failed by Rudyard Kipling

February 3, 2011
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We are pleased to announce a new critical edition of Rudyard Kipling’s semi-autobiographical first novel, The Light that Failed. The Light that Failed tells the story of war artist Dick Heldar, his doomed love for childhood sweetheart Maisie, and his descent into blindness. Through Dick, Kipling considers the relationship between art and life, espousing his [...]

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New edition of East of Suez

January 28, 2011
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Victorian Secrets is pleased to annouce a new critical edition of Alice Perrin’s East of Suez. Originally published in 1901, East of Suez was Perrin’s first collection of short stories.  Her fascinating and thought-provoking tales of Anglo-Indian life rival the best work of Kipling, and were hugely successful in their day.  Perrin tells stories of [...]

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The Victorian Secrets charts

September 11, 2010

By popular demand (well, several requests), here are the latest sales rankings for our titles.  Mr Gissing is occupying the top slot by a considerable margin, but Weird Stories and The Blood of the Vampire are both selling strongly at the moment. Workers in the Dawn by George Gissing Weird Stories by Charlotte Riddell The [...]

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