A War Culture in Action: A Study of the Literature of the Crimean War Period

For the loan of nineteenth-century editions of texts I have to thank Dr Alan Bird, Professor Brian Maidment and Professor Michael Wheeler. To the latter I am indebted for guidance, advice and encouragement throughout the preparation of the PhD thesis on which this book is based. But I am especially indebted to him for the generous suggestion of a topic which he had identified as an interesting and little-studied area, and which has provided me with many enjoyable and, I hope, fruitful hours of research. The difficulty of studying war, a phenomenon which is a source of pain to so many people, was compensated by the deeper understanding that came from my investigation into the literature of the Crimean War period. But during the rewriting of the material for publication, the threat of an unending war against terrorism has provided a grim backdrop for my study. Material used in Chapter 6 was previously published in the Tennysonian Research Bulletin, 7 (1997), 1–6. A version of Chapter 9 appeared in Chris Parker’s Gender Roles and Sexuality in Victorian Literature (Aldershot, 1995). Finally, but by no means least, I have to thank David Edmonds from Peter Lang AG for his patient advice during the preparation of the text for publication.