The Promise of the Suburbs
A Victorian History in Literature and Culture (2019)
The Landlady, 1856 (oil on canvas): James Collinson,
(1825-81). Credit: Sheffield Galleries
and Museums Trust, UK/Bridgeman Images.
Geraniums and Venetian blinds were familiar Victorian codes for the suburban. The young woman is advertising rooms "to let": numerous Victorian novels begin with a stranger arriving in a suburban locale and working to make sense of the inhabitants.
What's it about?
My 2019 book explores literary representations of the suburbs from as early as 1820.
Building on work published in academic journals (Victorian Literature and Culture, Victorian Review), I explore how the stereotype of the dull suburb got started in the first place -- and I show that it was, indeed, a stereotype, rather than an expression of a lived reality.
I also reveal that some Victorians found the new landscape positively thrilling. For women especially, suburban living facilitated new communities formed around shared interests rather than birth networks. Women writers paint a picture of the suburb as, not so much dull and vulgar, but socially complex, emotionally challenging, aesthetically stimulating, and even a portal into the professions.
The Promise of the Suburbs was a “Choice” Outstanding Academic Title, 2019.
“This impressive book is a must-read for anyone interested in mid-Victorian culture.””
“Fascinating . . . Packed as it is with intriguing anecdote and gossipy incidentals, reading The Promise of the Suburbs is an experience not unlike watching old black-and-white film footage that has been brought to full-hued life by a colourizing process.””
“Provocative . . . Bilston untangles the tropes of suburbia with nuance.””
“A book every Victorianist should know . . . well-written, thoroughly researched, and full of new insights.””
“Her study feels as if it easily and naturally uncovers something so obvious we cannot imagine how we might have missed it. That ease is amazing.””
“Well-researched, and highly readable . . . By taking us away from the usual male suspects, and showing us the suburbs from the perspective of women writers and their readers, Bilston has revealed a more complex version of this cultural landscape.””
“Stimulating . . . an extremely valuable addition to the scholarship of suburbia.””