E.S. Dallas in The Times

Book excerpt: This volume comprises of a substantial selection of E.S. Dallas’s journalism in The Times. Although his reviews were crucial not only in forging the literary reputations of upcoming writers such as different as George Eliot and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, but also in recalibrating the response to well-established authors such as Tennyson and Dickens, Eneas Sweetland Dallas (1827-79) remains arguably the most unjustly neglected of mid-Victorian critics. Although Dallas wrote for many other periodicals, it was his reviews in The Times that had the greatest impact on both the market for books and literary culture in the mid-Victorian period. This collection brings together an anthology of his contributions, as well as a newly written introduction, a comprehensive listing of the articles he submitted to The Times, critical apparatus to contextualise the materials, and a detailed chronology, reappraising Dallas’ biography. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of literary history.